GCN Circular 8221
Subject
GRB 080913: VLT/FORS2 observations
Event
Date
2008-09-13T10:58:48Z (17 years ago)
From
Paul Vreeswijk at Dark Cosmology Centre,U.of Copenhagen <pmv@dark-cosmology.dk>
P.M. Vreeswijk, J.P.U. Fynbo, D. Malesani (DARK/NBI) report on behalf
of a larger collaboration:
The field of GRB 080913 (Swift trigger 324561; Schady et al., GCN
#8217) was observed in target-of-opportunity mode with VLT+FORS2 using
the imaging sequence RzIVBR, starting at 7:31 UT on September 13, 2008,
i.e. 45 minutes after the GRB.
In the z-band image a faint source is detected within the Swift/XRT
error circle, with magnitude z(AB) = 23.1 (based on a very preliminary
calibration), while this object is not detected in any of the other
optical filters. Comparison with the z-band magnitude reported by Rossi
et al. (GCN #8218) suggests that the object has faded between 3 and 45
minutes after the burst, and therefore is likely the afterglow of GRB
080913.
We are very grateful for the excellent support by the Paranal
observatory staff, in particular Rachel Gilmour and Heidi Korhonen.
[GCN OPS NOTE(06nov08): Per author's request, "Heidi Schmidt" was
changed to "Hiedi Korhonen".]