GCN Circular 7197
Subject
GRB 080120: GROND detection
Date
2008-01-21T08:13:12Z (17 years ago)
From
Jochen Greiner at MPI <jcg@mpe.mpg.de>
T. Kruehler, J. Greiner, S. McBreen, S. Loew, A. Kuepcue-Yoldas, A. Yoldas
(all MPE Garching) report for the GROND team:
We started observing GRB 080120 observed by INTEGRAL (Mereghetti et al. 2008,
GCN #7194) simultaneously in grizJHK with GROND, mounted at the 2.2m MPI/ESO
telescope at La Silla (Chile), at 7:02 UT, about 13.5 hrs after the GRB.
At this time, the GRB location was becoming visible at 20 degrees
above horizon.
We find an optical/NIR source inside the 3.8 arcsec Swift/XRT error circle
of the X-ray afterglow (Sbarufatti et al. 2008, GCN #7195). The object is
seen in all bands except K, implying a redshift smaller than 3.5.
The coordinates are (+-1 arcsec):
RA (2000.0) = 15h 01m 03.2s
Decl (2000.0) = -10d 52' 30"
We estimate rough magnitudes of g'=21.1, r'=20.5, i'=20.0, z'=19.8,
J=19.6, H=19.4, K>18.9, calibrated against USNO and 2MASS stars.
Given the high airmass and humidity, these estimates may have large errors.
No statement about variability can be made at this point. Observations are
continuing.