No Supernova in NGC 4725

A. V. Filippenko, University of California at Berkeley, reports: "High-quality spectra (range 310-1000 nm, resolution 0.6- 1.6 nm) of the suspected supernova in NGC 4725 (IAUC 4373, 4374, 4377, 4382) were obtained on May 3 and 4 UT with a CCD spectrograph on the Shane 3-m reflector at Lick Observatory. Preliminary analysis indicates the object is a typical Galactic M4 or M5 dwarf, rather than a type-I SN. Curiously, its faint southern companion has an almost identical spectrum, but it is unlikely to be a lensed image. The SN candidate is visible in the Palomar Sky Survey prints, and several published small-scale photographs of NGC 4725 reveal both stars."