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GCN Circular 7281

Subject
GRB 080210: Swift detection of a burst with optical afterglow
Date
2008-02-10T08:27:08Z (17 years ago)
From
David Palmer at LANL <palmer@lanl.gov>
D. Grupe (PSU), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), M. M. Chester (PSU),
N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), E. A. Hoversten (PSU),
C. B. Markwardt (CRESST/GSFC/UMD), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
A. M. Parsons (GSFC), M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU) and M. C. Stroh (PSU)
report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 07:50:05 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 080210 (trigger=302888).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 251.270, +13.830 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 16h 45m 05s
   Dec(J2000) = +13d 49' 49"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a single-peak
with substructure with a duration of about 35 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~2000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~10 sec after the trigger.  This
was an image trigger, but with a clear light curve. 

The XRT began observing the field at 07:54:08 UT, 243 seconds after the
BAT trigger. XRT found a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source
located at RA, Dec 251.2679, +13.8254 which is
   RA(J2000)  =  16h 45m 04.3s
   Dec(J2000) =  13d 49' 31.4"
with an uncertainty of 4.6 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). 
This location is 18.1 arcseconds from the BAT on-board position,
within the BAT error circle. 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 100 seconds with the White
(160-650 nm) filter starting 160 seconds after the BAT trigger, and
an exposure of 193 seconds with the v filter starting 266 seconds
after the trigger. There is a candidate afterglow in the rapidly
available 2.7'x2.7' sub-image at RA, Dec = 251.2667, +13.8267 (white)
which is   
     RA(J2000) = 16:45:04.01    
     DEC(J2000) = +13:49:36.1 
with a 1-sigma error radius of about 0.6 arc sec. This position 
is 6.3 arcseconds from the center of the XRT error circle. The 
estimated magnitude is 18.0 in white and 17.6 in v with 
1-sigma errors of about 0.5 mag. The positions agree in both 
white and v. No correction has been made for the expected 
extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.08. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is D. Grupe (grupe AT astro.psu.edu). 
Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information
regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after
trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see
Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)
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