GCN Circular 11345

M. H. Siegel (PSU), J. M. Gelbord (PSU), D. Grupe (PSU),
S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), E. A. Hoversten (PSU),
C. B. Markwardt (NASA/GSFC), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester) and
D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 10:32:47 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 101017A (trigger=436429).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 291.378, -35.141 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 19h 25m 31s
   Dec(J2000) = -35d 08' 26"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve shows a complex series
of peaks in a FRED envelope about 40 seconds long, with possible
further emission out to T+100 seconds.  The peak count rate
was ~12000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~3 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 10:34:08.4 UT, 81.0 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright,
fading, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 291.38546,
-35.14513 which is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 19h 25m 32.51s
   Dec(J2000) = -35d 08' 42.5"
with an uncertainty of 3.9 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 26 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT
error circle. This position may be improved as more data are received;
the latest position is available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper. 

A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event
data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (7.69 x
10^20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 4.8
(+3.15/-2.65) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). 

The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 8.79e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10
keV). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 88 seconds after the BAT trigger. There is a candidate afterglow in
the rapidly available 2.7'x2.7' sub-image at
  RA(J2000)  =	19:25:32.56 = 291.38565
  DEC(J2000) = -35:08:41.4  = -35.14482
with a 90%-confidence error radius of about 0.72 arc sec. This position is 2.7
arc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is
19.98 with a 1-sigma error of about  0.19. No correction has been made for the
expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.17. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is M. H. Siegel (siegel 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.)