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GRB 051109

GCN Circular 4211

Subject
GRB 051109: ROTSE-III Detection of Possible Counterpart
Date
2005-11-09T01:21:11Z (20 years ago)
From
Eli Rykoff at U of Michigan/ROTSE <erykoff@umich.edu>
E.S. Rykoff (U Mich), B. Schaefer (Louisiana State), W. Rujopakarn (U 
Mich), F. Yuan (U Mich), R. Quimby (U Texas), report on behalf of the 
ROTSE collaboration:

ROTSE-IIIb, located at McDonald Observatory, Texas, responded to GRB 
051109 (Swift trigger 163136). The first image was at 01:12:52.7 UT, 
32.1 s after the burst (4.7 s after the GCN notice time). The unfiltered 
images are calibrated relative to USNO A2.0. We detect a new object, not 
visible in the DSS (second epoch), with coordinates:

      22:01:15.3      +40:49:23.3    (J2000)

start UT    	mag     mlim(of image)
----------------------------------
01:12:52.7     15.4     16.8


Continuing observations are in progress.

GCN Circular 4213

Subject
GRB051109: Swift detection of a burst
Date
2005-11-09T02:14:42Z (20 years ago)
From
David Palmer at LANL <dmpalmer@mac.com>
G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB), S. Barthelmy (GSFC), D. Burrows (PSU),
M. Chester (PSU), N. Gehrels (GSFC), J. Hill (GSFC/USRA),
S. T.  Holland (GSFC/USRA), J. Kennea (PSU), F. Marshall (GSFC),
T. Mineo (INAF-IASFPA),  D. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (GSFC),
on behalf of the Swift team:

At 01:12:20 UT, Swift-BAT triggered and located GRB051109  
(trigger=163136).
The spacecraft slewed immediately. The BAT on-board calculated location
is RA,Dec= 330.296d, +40.837d {22h 01m 11s, +40d 50' 15"} (J2000),  
with an
uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, stat+sys). The BAT
light curve showed a multi-peak structure with a total duration of
at least 25 sec. The peak count rate was ~2000 counts/sec (15-350 keV),
at ~2 seconds after the trigger.


The XRT began observing at 01:14:20 UT, 120 seconds after the BAT
trigger. The XRT on-board software located a bright, previously
uncatalogued, fading point source in the field at the following  
location:
RA(J2000):   22:01:15.5,
Dec(J2000): +40:49:21.7,
with an estimated uncertainty of 5.8 arcseconds (90% containment).
This position lies 74 arcseconds from the BAT position reported above,
and 2.8 arcseconds from the ROTSE position (Rykoff et al., GCN 4211).
The initial flux estimate of this source is 1.1 x 10^-9 erg/s/cm^2.

The UVOT began observing at 01:14:23, 123 seconds after the BAT trigger.
A bright, uncataloged source is apparent at RA,dec=330.3136,+40.8231
{22h01m15.26s, +40o49'23.2"} (J2000), coincident with the position
of the ROTSE detection.  The V-band magnitude is approximately 17;
this magnitude is based on an on-board source detection algorithm
and a more accurate brightness will be available  following
analysis of the full data set.  V-band extinction in the direction
of the UVOT position is A_V = 0.63.

GCN Circular 4217

Subject
GRB 051109: Swift-BAT refined analysis
Date
2005-11-09T04:25:01Z (20 years ago)
From
Takanori Sakamoto at NASA/GSFC <takanori@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>
E. Fenimore (LANL), L. Angelini (GSFC-JHU), L. Barbier (GSFC), 
S. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. Cummings (GSFC/NRC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), 
J. Greiner (MPE), D. Hullinger (UMD), H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), 
C. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), D. Palmer (LANL), A. Parsons (GSFC), 
T. Sakamoto (GSFC/NRC), G. Sato (ISAS), J. Tueller (GSFC), 
on behalf of the Swift-BAT team:

Using the data set from T-60 to T+70 sec from the recent telemetry
downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 051109 
(trigger #163136)  (Tagliaferri, et al., GCN 4213).  The BAT 
ground-calculated position is 
(RA,Dec) = 330.295, +40.836 {22h 01m 10.7s, +40d 50' 10.5"} [deg; J2000] 
+-2.1 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment).  The partial coding was 9%.  

The lightcurve has two peaks.  The initial strong peak starts at 
T-5 sec with a duration of 20 sec.  The second weaker peak starts 
at T+21 sec. with a duration of 20 sec.  T90 (15-350 keV) is (36 +- 2) sec 
(estimated error including systematics).  

The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 1.5 +- 0.2.  
The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is (2.1 +- 0.3) x 10^-6 erg/cm2.  
The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T0+0.4 sec in the 15-150 keV 
band is (3.7 +- 0.7) ph/cm2/sec.  All the quoted errors are at the 90% 
confidence level.

GCN Circular 4218

Subject
GRB051109: Early Super-LOTIS Detection
Date
2005-11-09T05:21:00Z (20 years ago)
From
Grant Williams at Steward Observatory <ggwilli@mmto.org>
P. A. Milne, G. G. Williams (U. of Arizona), H. S. Park (LLNL), S. 
Barthelmy (GSFC)

The automated 0.6-m Super-LOTIS telescope began observations
of the error region of GRB051109 (Swift trigger 163136) at
01:13:03.6 UT, 43.0 seconds after the burst.  The OT detected
by the Rykoff et al. (GCN 4211) is clearly visible in the first
image and subsequent images.  We confirm that the OT has faded in
images taken 13 minutes after the burst.

The R-band magnitude of the afterglow in the first image is:

UT Time         Delta-Time  R magnitude     error
01:13:03.6      43.0 s       15.27           0.13

Reported magnitudes are relative to the R1 magnitudes of five
stars in the USNO-B catalog.

Additional observations are underway.

GCN Circular 4219

Subject
GRB 051109: Rc and Ic observations
Date
2005-11-09T06:14:38Z (20 years ago)
From
Ken ichi Torii at RIKEN <torii@ess.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp>
K. Torii (Osaka U.) reports:

 The error region of GRB 051109 (Tagliaferri et al. GCN 4213) was
observed by the 0.3 m telescopes in the New Mexico Skies
Observatory. Starting at 01:17:46 UT (326 s after the burst), 120 s
exposures in Ic band was obtained. We also observed the field in Rc
band (120 s exposures) with another 0.3 m telescope at the same site,
starting at 01:29:39 UT.

 As a result of the preliminary analysis, the optical afterglow
(Rykoff et al. GCN 4211) is detected in Ic band as follows, relative
to USNO-B1.0 I magnitude.

------------------------------------------
StartUT	Filter	Mag	Nframes
------------------------------------------
01:25:25 Ic	16.6	1
------------------------------------------

GCN Circular 4220

Subject
GRB 051109: PROMPT Detections
Date
2005-11-09T06:20:02Z (20 years ago)
From
Josh Haislip at U.North Carolina <haislip@physics.unc.edu>
J. Haislip, M. Nysewander, M. Bayliss, A. LaCluyze, D. Reichart, J. A.
Crain, and A. Foster report on behalf of the UNC team of the FUN GRB
Collaboration.

Under the control of Skynet, PROMPT Temporary Telescope 3 automatically
observed the localization of GRB 051109 (Tagliaferri et al., GCN 4213)
beginning 1.7 min after the burst in repeating blocks of B and V.

PROMPT Temporary Telescope 5 joined PROMPT-3 15.6 min after the burst in
repeating blocks Rc and Ic.  These observations were carried out in synch
with PROMPT-3's observations.

We detect the afterglow (Rykoff et al., GCN 4211) in single V, Rc, and Ic
exposures and measure its brightness to be V ~ 16.6 mag at 3.3 min after
the burst.

PROMPT is still being built and commissioned.

GCN Circular 4221

Subject
GRB 051109: HET Optical Spectrum and Absorption Redshift
Date
2005-11-09T08:06:51Z (20 years ago)
From
Robert Quimby at U of Texas/ROTSE <quimby@astro.as.utexas.edu>
R. Quimby (U. Texas), D. Fox (PSU), P. Hoeflich (U. Texas), B. Roman,
and J. C. Wheeler (U. Texas) report:

We observed the optical afterglow (Rykoff et al. GCN 4211) of GRB
051109 (Tagliaferri et al. GCN 4213) with the 9.2m Hobby-Eberly
Telescope (+ Marcario Low-Resolution Spectrograph) beginning November
9, 03:55:40 UT (~2.5 hrs after the burst trigger). Several absorption
lines are present in the spectrum corresponding to Si II (1526.7), C
IV, Cr II (2056.3, 2066.2), and Fe II (2344.2, 2382.8) among others
at a redshift of z=2.346.

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