Photometric observations of the bright Type II supernova 1980K in NGC 6946

Photoelectric UBV photometry of the recent bright supernova 1980k in NGC 6946 is presented. The U, B, and V light curves show a linear decay in magnitude at the rates 0. m 100, 0. m 058 and 0. m 041 day -1 , respectively, over the first 57 days past maximum, consistent with the L class of Type II supernovae. The distance modulus of NGC 6946 determined from ten different photometric and geometric distance indicators is μ 0 = 28.7 ± 0.3. The apparent magnitude at maximum, B max = 11.7 ± 0.1 and B 0 (max) = 10.2 ± 0.2 corrected for the large and uncertain extinction, indicates that SN 1980k reached an absolute magnitude MB0 (max) = 18.5 ± 0.35.