GCN Circular 20000
Subject
GRB 150302A: late-time imaging and optical afterglow confirmation
Date
2016-10-06T06:03:14Z (8 years ago)
From
Daniele Malesani at Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Inst <malesani@dark-cosmology.dk>
D. Malesani (DARK NBI and DTU Space), J.P.U. Fynbo (DARK/NBI), and T.
Kruehler (MPE), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed the field of GRB 150302A (Lien et al., GCN 17526) with the
Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with the ALFOSC imaging camera.
Observations (4x300 s exposure) were carried out in the SDSS r filter,
at a mean epoch 2016 Jun 23.94 UT (1.3 years after the GRB).
At the location of the optical afterglow candidate (Fynbo et al., GCN
17527), we detect no source down to a limiting magnitude of r = 23.5,
calibrated against nearby SDSS stars. By comparing with our early epoch,
we conclude that the source has faded by more than 1 mag. Together with
the positional consistency with the enhanced XRT location (Goad et al.,
GCN 17534), we can thus now confirm it as the optical afterglow of GRB
150302A.
We acknowledge excellent support from the NOT observing staff, in
particular John Telting.