The first month of evolution of the slow rising type II-P SN 2013ej in
  M74
  We present early photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2013ej, a
bright type IIP supernova in M74. SN 2013ej is one of the closest SNe ever
discovered. The available archive images and the early discovery help to
constrain the nature of its progenitor. The earliest detection of this
explosion was on 2013 July 24.14 UT and our spectroscopic monitoring began on
July 27.73 UT, continuing almost daily for two weeks with the LCOGT FLOYDS
spectrographs. Daily optical photometric monitoring was achieved with the LCOGT
1m network, and were complemented by UV data from SWIFT and near-infrared
spectra from PESSTO and IRTF. The data from our monitoring campaign show that
SN 2013ej experienced a 10-day rise before entering into a well defined plateau
phase. This unusually long rise time for a type IIP has been seen previously in
SN 2006bp and SN 2009bw. A relatively rare strong absorption blue-ward of
H{\alpha} is present since our earliest spectrum. We identify this feature as
Si ii, rather than high velocity H{\alpha} as sometimes reported in the
literature.
