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GRB 050505

GCN Circular 3360

Subject
Swift-BAT detection of GRB050505
Date
2005-05-06T00:15:29Z (20 years ago)
From
Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC <Scott@lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov>
C. Hurkett (U. Leicester), S. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. Cummings (GSFC/NRC),
N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD),
D. Palmer (LANL), P. Shady (MSSL), J. Osborne (U. Leicester),
J. Kennea, D. Burrows (PSU)  for the Swift-team:


At 23:22:21 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located on-board GRB050505  (trigger #117504).   The BAT on-board
calculated location is RA, Dec 141.782, +30.255 (J2000) with an
uncertainty of 4 arcmin (radius, 3-sigma, including estimated
systematic uncertainty, 90% containment).  The BAT light curve
showed a multipeak structure with a duration of about 45 seconds.
The peak count rate measured by BAT was about 1500 counts/sec
in the 15 - 350 keV band, occurring at the trigger.

The Swift spacecraft did not make an immediate slew because of the
Earth observing constraint.

[GCN OPS NOTE(05May05): The author list was changed to include authors
that were accidentally left out.]

GCN Circular 3364

Subject
GRB050505 Swift-BAT refined analysis
Date
2005-05-06T02:12:32Z (20 years ago)
From
Hans Krimm at NASA-GSFC <krimm@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>
D. Hullinger (UMD),  L. Barbier (GSFC), S. Barthelmy (GSFC),
L. Cominsky (Sonoma State), J. Cummings (GSFC/NRC),
E. Fenimore (LANL), R. Fink (GSFC), M. Galassi (LANL),
N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA),
C. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), D. Palmer (LANL),
A. Parsons (GSFC), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/NRC), G. Sato (ISAS),
M. Suzuki (Saitama), M. Tashiro (Saitama U.), J. Tueller (GSFC),

on behalf of the Swift/BAT team:

At 23:22:21 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered
and located GRB050505 (trigger=117504) (GCN Circ 3360, Hurkett
et al.).  The refined BAT ground position is (RA,Dec) = 141.787,
+30.245, [deg; J2000] +- 3 arcmin, (95% containment). The burst
was 49 degrees off the Swift boresight, which is ~30% coded.

The BAT mask-weighted light curve shows a multi-peaked
structure with a total duration T90 (15-350 keV) 60 +- 2 seconds
(estimated error including systematics).  The initial peak began
~15 seconds before the trigger and extended to 10 seconds after
the trigger.  There were three further short peaks beginning at
T+20 seconds, T+31 seconds, and T+49 seconds.

The spectrum is well fit by a simple power law with photon index
of 1.5 +- 0.1.  The fluence in the 15-350 keV band is
(4.1 +- 0.4) x 10^-6 erg/cm2.  The 1-second peak photon flux in
the 15-350 band is (2.2 +- 0.3) ph/cm2/s recorded at 1 second
after the trigger. All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level.

We note that this burst appears to be well-suited for ground
follow-up observations, as it is located 90 degrees from the Sun,
120 degrees from the Moon, close to the ecliptic, and away from
the Galactic plane.

GCN Circular 3365

Subject
GRB 050505: Swift XRT Position
Date
2005-05-06T02:53:21Z (20 years ago)
From
Jamie A. Kennea at PSU/Swift-XRT <kennea@astro.psu.edu>
J. A. Kennea, D. N. Burrows (PSU), C. P. Hurkett, J. P. Osbourne (U. 
Leicester) and N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift XRT 
team:

The Swift BAT instrument detected a GRB at 23:22:21 UT on 5th May 2005 
(GCN Circ 3360). The observatory executed an automated slew to the BAT 
position and the XRT began taking data at 00:09:23 UT on 6th May 2005. The 
XRT was in Auto state but was not able to centroid on the afterglow due to 
low source brightness. From downlinked data we find a uncatalogued X-ray 
source located at:

RA(J2000) = 9:27:03.2,
Dec(J2000) = +30:16:21.5

We estimate an uncertainty of about 6 arcseconds radius (90% containment). This 
position is 124 arcseconds from the BAT position reported in GCN 3364.

GCN Circular 3366

Subject
GRB050505: Optical Afterglow Candidate
Date
2005-05-06T07:25:58Z (20 years ago)
From
S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech <cenko@srl.caltech.edu>
S. Bradley Cenko, Chuck Steidel, Naveen Reddy, and Derek B. Fox report
on behalf of the Caltech-NRAO-Carnegie GRB Collaboration:

We have imaged the field of GRB050505 (GCN 3360) with the Keck Low
Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) mounted on the 10-m Keck I
Telescope.  Observations in imaging mode consisted of 2 x 300 s
simultaneous exposures in the g' and I filters.  The mean epoch of our
observations is approximately 5:45 UT 6 May 2005 (~ 6.1 hours after the
burst).

In the XRT error circle reported in GCN 3365, we find one bright source,
with coordinates (J2000.0):

	RA: 09:27:03.3
	Dec: +30:16:23.7

We tentatively identify this source as the afterglow of GRB050505.

GCN Circular 3367

Subject
GRB 050505 UVOT
Date
2005-05-06T08:22:11Z (20 years ago)
From
Simon Rosen at MSSL-UCL <srr@mssl.ucl.ac.uk>
S. Rosen (MSSL), C. Hurkett (Leicester), W. Landsman (GSFC), P. Roming 
(PSU), T. Poole (MSSL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), K. Mason (MSSL), J. Nousek 
(PSU), on behalf of the Swift UVOT team

The Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) began observations of
GRB050505 on May 06, 2005 at 00:09:08 UT, ~48 minutes after the initial
Swift BAT trigger (Hullinger et al, GCN 3364) (the delay in observations
was due to the Earth-limb constraint, which prevented an immediate slew).
Initial data is limited to one 100s exposure in each of four filters. 
We detect no source at the Swift XRT position (Kennea et al, GCN 3365) in 
any filter. The limiting magnitudes (5-sigma in 6" radius apertures) in 
each of the UVOT filters are as follows:

Filter Lim_Mag Duration (s) T_start (s)

V      ~17.7    100         T + 2870
U      ~18.4    100         T + 3180
UVW1   ~18.9    100         T + 3080
UVM2   ~19.7    100         T + 2970

The magnitudes are based on preliminary zero-points, measured in
orbit, and will require refinement with further calibration.

This message may be cited.

GCN Circular 3368

Subject
GRB 050505: Keck absorption spectrum and redshift (z=4.27)
Date
2005-05-06T08:36:50Z (20 years ago)
From
Edo Berger at Carnegie Obs <eberger@ociw.edu>
Edo Berger (Carnegie Observatories), S. Bradley Cenko, Chuck Steidel,
Naveen Reddy, and Derek B. Fox (Caltech) report on behalf of the
Caltech-NRAO-Carnegie GRB Collaboration:

"We obtained a 900-sec spectrum of the optical candidate (GCN 3366) of GRB
050505 (GCN 3360) with LRIS on the Keck I 10-m telescope on 2005, May 6.27
UT.  We find very strong absorption over the range of 6200-6500 A,
corresponding to Ly alpha absorption around z = 4.1 to 4.3.  In addition,
we find several metal absorption lines, including SiIV (1393,1402), at a
redshift of 4.27.

At this redshift, the second highest measured for any GRB, the isotropic
equivalent gamma-ray energy is 7.7e53 erg."

GCN Circular 3370

Subject
GRB050505: AAVSO observations
Date
2005-05-06T13:31:30Z (20 years ago)
From
Arne A. Henden at AAVSO <arne@aavso.org>
D. Hohman (Stone Edge Observatory), A. Henden (AAVSO) and A. Price (AAVSO) 
report on behalf of the AAVSO International High Energy Network on
optical observations of GRB050505 (GCN #3360, Hurkett et al.):

No afterglow candidate is found in the field or at the location of
the afterglow reported by Cenko et al. (GCN 3366) to a limiting
unfiltered (R-like) magnitude of 18.5 using USNO-A2.0 reference
stars. Observation midpoint time was 02:19 UT on May 6, 2005
(2.9hrs after burst). Details of the observation are below along
with a link to the FITS image.  The unfiltered observations have
significant Rc/Ic contribution and so are complementary to the
UVOT observations reported by Rosen, et al. (GCN 3367).

 Name: Dennis Hohman
 email: dennishohman@adelphia.net
 Observer: Dennis Hohman
 Site: Stone Edge Observatory
 Location: Orchard park, NY
 LatitudeLongitude: -78.75, 42.76
 Elevation: 950 ft
 Scope: C8
 ScopeFocalRatio: 6.1
 CCDVendor: ST7XME
 CCDDetector: KAF401E
 CCDSize: 382x255
 CCDPixelScale: 3.0
 CCDFOV: 12.9x19.4
 Object: GRB050505
 ObsDate: 05/06/05
 ObsMidPointTime: 02:19
 TimePerFrame: 240 sec
 NumberOfFrames: 7
 Filters: CR
 Processing: Flatfield,Dark sub, avg
 Seeing: 3.8
 LimitingMag: 18.7
 Sky: Clear, some high clouds
 afterglowmag: 
 afterglowerr: 
 compstars: 
 Report: Entire error circle covered. No new object visible to
   estimated mag 18.5
 comments: 

A FITS image has been uploaded to ftp://ftp.aavso.org/grb/DennisHohman_GRB050505_2453496.67896_.fits 

The AAVSO thanks the Curry Foundation for their continued support of the 
AAVSO International High Energy Network.

GCN Circular 3371

Subject
GRB 050505: Further Swift UVOT observations.
Date
2005-05-06T14:17:46Z (20 years ago)
From
Simon Rosen at MSSL-UCL <srr@mssl.ucl.ac.uk>
S. Rosen (MSSL), C. Hurkett (Leicester), S. Holland (GSFC), P. Roming 
(PSU), A. Blustin (MSSL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), K. Mason (MSSL), J. Nousek 
(PSU), on behalf of the Swift UVOT team

Further to the initial Swift UVOT results (Rosen et. al. 3367) we report
the results of co-added, deeper exposures of GRB 050505 with the Swift
Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) on May 06, 2005.

We detect no source at the Keck determined location  (Cenko et al, GCN 
3366) in any of the UVOT filters with the following 5 sigma and 3 sigma
limits (in 6" radius apertures)


Filter    Lim_Mag      Lim_mag   Total duration (s)   T_range (s)
           5sigma       3sigma

V          19.82        20.35        2527            2807  -  28543
B          20.50        21.04        1999            3236  -  26917
U          20.26        20.84        2890            3132  -  22757
UVW1       20.81        21.36        1999            3029  -  22040
UVM2       21.13        21.68        2422            2924  -  21132
UVW2       21.27        21.83        1997            3342  -  27826

T_range is since the BAT trigger time (Hullinger et al. 3364).

The magnitudes are based on preliminary zero-points, measured in
orbit, and will require refinement with further calibration.

We note that for the estimated redshift of 4.1 - 4.3 (GCN 3368), the Lyman 
limit lies between the UVOT B and V filters - the lack of a UVOT 
detection in V may be significant, depending on the brightness of the 
source detected by Keck and the true redshift.

This message may be cited.

GCN Circular 3372

Subject
GRB050505: Infrared observations
Date
2005-05-06T14:58:07Z (20 years ago)
From
Evert Rol at U.Leicester <er45@star.le.ac.uk>
E. Rol (U. of Leicester), N. Tanvir (U. of Hertfordshire), A. Levan
(U. of Leicester), A. Adamson, L. Fuhrman (JAC), R. Priddey,
R. Chapman (U. of Hertfordshire) report:

We have observed the error circle of GRB050505 (GCN 3360) in K-band
with the WFCAM instrument on UKIRT. At the position of the optical
candidate (GCN 3366), we clearly detect a point-like source,
presumably the infrared counterpart.
Relative to 2MASS stars in the frame we measure a provisional
magnitude of K = 18.1 +/- 0.2 (error includes allowance for possible
systematics), 6.82 hours after the burst trigger (mid-exposure time).

GCN Circular 3373

Subject
GRB 050505, simultaneous optical observation
Date
2005-05-06T20:11:23Z (20 years ago)
From
Javier Gorosabel at LAEFF-INTA, Madrid <jgu@laeff.esa.es>
M. Jelinek, A. J. Castro-Tirado, J. Gorosabel, A. de Ugarte Postigo, 
S. Guziy (IAA-CSIC Granada), P. Kubanek, R. Hudec (Astronomical 
Institute of the Academy of Sciences, Ondrejov), and S. Vitek 
(Czech Technical University), report:

"The BOOTES-1 very wide field camera, located at Estacion de
Sondeos Atmosfericos (INTA-CEDEA) in Huelva (Spain), observed
the region of the sky containing the SWIFT/BAT error box for 
GRB 050505 (Hurkett et al. GCN 3360) as part of its routine
observing schedule. A 30 s exposure started at 23:22:00 UT 
(21 s prior to the onset of the 90 s long burst), with the
following frame starting at 23:23:00 UT (i.e. covering the late
part of the event). A limiting (unfiltered, airmass 1.6)
magnitude of 9.2 is derived for any prompt optical flash
arising from this event."

This message can be quoted.

[GCN OPS NOTE(07may05):  Per author's request, the second time
was changed to 23:22:30.]
[GCN OPS NOTE(08may05):  Per author's request, the second time
was changed to 23:23:00. The Hurkett reference was changed to 3360.]

GCN Circular 3375

Subject
GRB 050505 - Faulkes Telescope North observations
Date
2005-05-06T21:07:47Z (20 years ago)
From
Nial Tanvir at IofA U.Cambridge <nrt@ast.cam.ac.uk>
R. Chapman, N. Tanvir (U. of Hertfordshire), E. Rol, A.Levan (U. of
Leicester), R. Priddey (U. of Hertfordshire), I. Steele, R. Smith,
C. Mundell and M. Bode (Liverpool John Moores University) report on
behalf of the ROBONET collaboration:

The Swift/BAT error circle of GRB 050505 (GCN3360) was observed in
R-band starting May 6.30 UT with the 2m Faulkes Telescope North on
Haleakala.  Several short exposures were combined and reveal a source
at the position of the candidate optical counterpart from GCN3366.

Preliminary photometry relative to USNO-B1 stars in the frame provides
a magnitude of R = 21.5 +/- 0.2 for this source.

Further observations are planned.

This message may be cited.

GCN Circular 3376

Subject
GRB 050505: early time observations
Date
2005-05-07T22:28:55Z (20 years ago)
From
Alberto Castro-Tirado at LAEFF-INTA <ajct@laeff.esa.es>
A. de Ugarte Postigo, M. Jelinek, J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC Granada),
P. Kubanek, R. Hudec (ASU-CAS Ondrejov), T. J. Mateo Sanguino
(Univ. de Huelva), S. Castillo, S.Guziy and A. J. Castro-Tirado
(IAA-CSIC), report:

"Following the detection by SWIFT/BAT of GRB 050505
(Herkett et al., GCN 3360), the pair of 0.2m BOOTES-1B
telescopes at INTA-CSIC's Observatorio de Arenosillo
responded automatically at 23:32:30 UT (i.e. 70 s after
the alert which was received 9.5 min after the onset of 
the  event).  A co-addition of the first  V- and I-band 
images taken do not reveal the optical afterglow at the
position given by Bradley Cenko et al., (GCN 3366).
On the other hand, the 0.6m telescope (+BOOTES-IR optical 
camera)  at IAA's Observatorio de Sierra Nevada           
responded automatically  at 23:31:57 UT (i.e. 37 s after
the alert received 9.5 min after the onset of the event).
Due to technical problems (the telescope is still in
commissioning phase), the first image was acquired at
00:09 UT (47 min after the GRB). A preliminary analysis
of our R-band observations (total exposure time = 1 hour) 
imposes a limit of R > 19 to the afterglow optical emission
(Bradley Cenko et al., GCN 3366). Further analysis is
in progress."

This message may be cited.

GCN Circular 3377

Subject
GRB 050505: Keck I-band Magnitude
Date
2005-05-07T23:02:43Z (20 years ago)
From
S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech <cenko@srl.caltech.edu>
S. Bradley Cenko, Chuck Steidel, Naveen Reddy, and Derek B. Fox report on
behalf of the Caltech-NRAO-Carnegie GRB Collaboration:

We have further analyzed the I band images of the afterglow of GRB 050505
reported in GCN 3366.  Using the USNO-B1 star located at RA:
09:27:06.5667, Dec: +30:17:18.750 (I = 18.85) as a reference, we find the
following magnitude for the afterglow:

UT Time      UT Date     Time Since Burst (hr)      Magnitude
------------------------------------------------------------------------
5:45:47      May 6       6.4			    20.66 +/- 0.1

GCN Circular 3398

Subject
GRB 050505: SARA Observations
Date
2005-05-09T19:03:38Z (20 years ago)
From
Autumn Homewood at Clemson U <ahomewo@clemson.edu>
Autumn Homewood, Dieter H. Hartmann (Clemson), Matt Wood (FIT)

Report on behalf of the Follow-Up-Network (FUN) GRB collaboration:

We observed a 8x12 arcminute field centered on the optical afterglow (GCN
3366) of GRB 050505 discovered by Swift (GCN 3360) with the SARA 0.9 m
Telescope at KPNO. Observations were carried out under good seeing
conditions with the U55 CCD. We obtained 35 minutes of exposure in R.
Observations started at UT 05/05/06 03:03:37, and ended 03:43:43. We do
not detect the afterglow. Our R-band upper limit (1-sigma) is R(lim) =
19.7. The calibration was carried out using the USNO A2.0 catalog.

The SARA home page can be found at
http://www.astro.fit.edu/sara/sara.html

This message may be cited.

GCN Circular 3403

Subject
GRB 050505, early TAROT observation
Date
2005-05-10T08:34:00Z (20 years ago)
From
Jean-Luc Atteia at Lab d Astrophys.,OMP,Toulouse <atteia@ast.obs-mip.fr>
Klotz, A., Boer M. (OHP), and Atteia, J.L. (LAT) report:

We imaged the entire field of GRB 050505 (cf. Hurkett et al. GCNC 3360)
with the TAROT robotic telescope (D=25cm) located at the Calern observatory,
France. Observations started at 23:31:49 UT, 7 seconds after the GCN notice,
and 9.1 min after the GRB. The field had an elevation lower than 26 degrees
above horizon at the begining of the observations.

When we co-add series of 30s unfiltered images, we detect a source at the position
mentioned by S. Bradley Cenko et al. (GCNC 3366) until 23h47 UT.
As the redshift measured by Berger et al. (GCNC 3378) indicates a strong absorption
over the range of 6200-6500 A, we compared the flux of TAROT images (clear filter)
with the I band magnitudes of the USNO-B1 catalog. We find the following magnitudes:

2005-05-05T23:31:49 to 2005-05-05T23:39:25 I=18.2 +/- 0.2
2005-05-05T23:39:32 to 2005-05-05T23:47:08 I=18.4 +/- 0.2
2005-05-05T23:49:55 to 2005-05-05T23:59:39 I>18.8

The comparison with the I magnitude of 20.66 reported by Cenko et al. (GCN 3377)
6.4 hours after the GRB, indicate a slope of -0.7 for the temporal decay in I band.

Further information can be found at

http://www.cesr.fr/~klotz/grb050505/

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