GCN Circular 2143
Subject
GRB 030329: SARA Optical Observations
Date
2003-04-16T19:40:11Z (21 years ago)
From
Kevin Lindsay at Clemson.U <jlkevin@compton.phys.clemson.edu>
K. Lindsay, D. H. Hartmann (Clemson University)
A. Henden (USNO), A. Zeh, S. Klose (Tautenburg)
Report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the optical afterglow of GRB 030329,
(=H2656, Vanderspek et al., GCN 1997), identified
by Peterson & Price (GCN 1985) and Torii (GCN 1986).
Observations were made on Tuesday April 8, 2003
with the SARA 0.9m telescope at KPNO. Sixty 300s
exposures were taken in the B Band. Observations
began at 03:07:27 UT and ended at 08:23:12 UT. All
observations were carried out under relatively good
seeing conditions. Aperture photometry was carried
out based on the calibration by Henden (GCN 2082).
We find an average magnitude of B= 19.8 +/- 0.1.
Comparison with observations carried out at USNO
and our previous observations with SARA indicate
that the afterglow was approximately 0.5
magnitudes brighter than predicted from previous
nights. This deviation is consistant with the excess
light due to the underlying SN (Zeh et al., GCN 2081).
The SARA observations discussed herein were in part
made possible by generous contributions of telescope
time from Dr. J. Webb, E. Howard, Dr. M. Leake,
M. Williams and Dr. S. Shaw.
More information on the SARA Observatory can be
found at http://www.saraobservatory.org/.
This report may be cited.