{
  "bibcode": "2009GCN..9269....1T",
  "body": "Christina C. Thoene (INAF/Brera), Daniele Malesani, Johan P. U. Fynbo,\nJens Hjorth (DARK/NBI), Pall Jakobsson (Univ. Iceland), Andrew J. Levan\n(Univ. Warwick), Klaas Wiersema, Nial Tanvir (Univ. Leicester), Valerio\nD'Elia (INAF/Roma and ASDC), Paul M. Vreeswijk (DARK/NBI), Paolo D'Avanzo\n(Univ. Milano-Bicocca & INAF/Brera), Dong Xu (DARK/NBI) report on behalf\nof a larger collaboration:\n\nWe observed the afterglow of GRB 090426 (Cummings et al., GCN 9254) with\nthe ESO VLT equipped with the FORS2 spectrograph. Observations were\ncarried out starting on 2009 Apr 27.048 UT (12.3 hr after the GRB). In the\nacquisition image, the afterglow (Cummings et al., GCN 9254) had R ~ 21.65.\n\nSpectra covering the wavelength range 3500-6500 AA were taken, for a total\nexposure time of 1 hr. From detection of several absorption features,\nincluding Lyalpha, SiIV 1394, SiIV 1403, CIV 1548/1551, as well as NV\n1239/1243, we confirm the redshift z=2.609 derived by Levesque et al.\n(GCN 9264).\n\nWe note the very low column density (rest EW = 2 AA) of the Lyalpha line,\ncorresponding to less than 10^19 cm^-2 in HI column density. This\ncontrasts with the strength of the high-ionization lines.\n\nWe acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Paranal, in\nparticular Paul Lynam, Elena Mason, and Jonathan Smoker.",
  "circularId": 9269,
  "createdOn": 1240839829000,
  "email": "jfynbo@astro.ku.dk",
  "subject": "GRB 090426: VLT spectroscopy",
  "submitter": "Johan U. Fynbo at U.Copenhagen  <jfynbo@astro.ku.dk>",
  "eventId": "GRB 090426"
}