GCN Circular 28371

K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. N. Burrows (PSU), J.D. Gropp (PSU),
S. Laha (GSFC/UMBC/CRESST), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC) and
D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift
Observatory Team:

At 13:11:04 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 200906A (trigger=994856).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 272.293, +67.852 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 18h 09m 10s
   Dec(J2000) = +67d 51' 08"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed two main peaks
with a duration of about 80 sec.  The second, larger, peak extends 
past the end of the slew and into the interval observed by XRT and UVOT.  
The peak count rate was ~3000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), 
at ~52 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 13:12:10.8 UT, 66.7 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright,
uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec 272.2731,
67.8791 which is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 18h 09m 05.54s
   Dec(J2000) = +67d 52' 44.8"
with an uncertainty of 2.6 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 101 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
https://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 (5.25 x
10^20 cm^-2, Willingale et al. 2013), with an excess column of 5.5
(+6.91/-5.25) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). 

The initial flux in the 0.1 s image was 2.09e-08 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10
keV). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 76 seconds after the BAT trigger. No credible afterglow candidate has
been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 100% of
the XRT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag. 
The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the
XRT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No
correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of
0.05. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is K. L. Page (klp5 AT leicester.ac.uk). 
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/)