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GCN Circular 2217

Subject
GRB 030329: Optical limit (contemporaneous photography)
Date
2003-05-08T08:06:15Z (21 years ago)
From
Ken ichi Torii at RIKEN <torii@crab.riken.go.jp>
K. Sasaki (Japan Fireball Network), M. Tomita (Japan Fireball
Network), K. Ohnishi (Nagano National College of Technology), 
and K. Torii (RIKEN) report:

 The sky area of GRB 030329 (Vanderspek, et al., GCN 1997) was
contemporaneously photographed on 2003 March 29 by K. Sasaki and
M. Tomita with all-sky patrol cameras.

 In the frames tabulated below, no significant object is found at the
position of the optical afterglow (Peterson and Price, GCN 1985;
Torii, GCN 1986). We derive preliminary upper limits for the optical
transient by comparison with either 41 LMi (V=5.1) or 54 Leo (V=4.3)
which is significantly detected.

Data from KS
-----------------------------
Start(UT) End(UT) Mag.
-----------------------------
10:40:00 10:59:58 >5.1
11:00:00 11:19:58 >5.1
11:20:00 11:39:58 >5.1
11:40:00 11:59:58 >5.1
-----------------------------

Data from MT
-----------------------------
Start(UT) End(UT) Mag.
-----------------------------
10:30:00 10:59:00 >4.3
11:00:00 11:29:00 >4.3
11:30:00 11:59:00 >4.3
12:00:00 12:29:00 >4.3
12:30:00 12:59:00 >4.3
-----------------------------

 Effective exposure for each frame,
399 s for KS and 580 s for MT, is 1/3 of the elapsed time
due to a rotating shutter in front of the optics.

 Details of the instruments, originally designed for detecting
fireballs (bright meteors), are as follows.

Position of the observatory: KS
Iwate, Japan
141d08m24s E, +39d28m22s N, 100m altitude

Position of the observatory: MT
Ishikawa, Japan
136d48m01s E, +36d55m39s N, 10m altitude

The following instruments are common to the two observatories.

Camera: Canon T70 with command back
Optics: Canon New FD 15mm f/2.8 full-frame fish-eye lens, used at f/2.8
Filter: No
Film: Kodak TMAX 400
Rotating shutter: Open fraction is 1/3
---------------------------------------------
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