[AAVSO-HEN] GRB060218

[Peter Brown]

I'm available to answer questions as well.  I tried to send a message to the group a couple days ago, but it may not have gone through (I don't think I've received it yet).  The SN should reach maximum about 10 days from now.  We at Swift are very excited about it.  And for those of us disappointed at the lack of bright optical afterglows for Swift's UV-Optical Telescope, this is a great consolation prize.
   
  Peter

arne at aavso.org wrote:
  This Swift burst, occurring at 03:34:30.97UT on 060218,
has generated a lot of interest in the scientific
community.

The optical afterglow was actually discovered by the
Swift UVOT instrument (GCN 4775). Neil Gehrels pointed
out in GCN 4787 that this burst was a very unusual
event. The X-ray light curve can be seen at:
http://www.merate.mi.astro.it/~moretti/lc_060218.gif

Mirabal and collaborators (GCN 4792) measured a red shift
of z=0.0331, so a very nearby GRB. A host galaxy is
seen on the SDSS images. Soderberg and collaborators
(GCN 4794) report that there was an immediate detection
of a radio source.

Probably most importantly, Masetti and collaborators
(GCN 4803) report that a supernova spectrum was emerging
only 3 days after the burst.

Most researchers now believe that the supernova (designated
SN 2006aj, see IAUC 8674) is still rising to maximum. It
is currently about 19th magnitude, but should increase to
V=16-17 in the next week or two.

The SDSS imaged the field prior to the burst, so there
exists good photometry. In GCN 4777, Cool et al. indicate
that the images, photometry and astrometry, are available at
http://mizar.as.arizona.edu/~grb/public/GRB060218

Therefore, this is an ideal candidate for the amateur network
to follow. I would pick V or R filters, and use long enough
exposures to be able to reach S/N=50 on the object. The
coordinates are:
03:21:39.71 +16:52:02.1 J2000
so it is only about 5 hours from the sun and an early
evening object. Rapid time series is not necessary, but
if you can get multiple images in a single filter with S/N=50,
or a V/R pair per night, that won't hurt.
A finding chart from the red DSS2 image is at:
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~jcg/grb060218/grb060218_fc.ps
and also on the AAVSO web page.

We will create a full campaign in the next few days. Unfortunately,
I'm on travel and Aaron/Matt will be joining me in a couple of days.
If you have questions, post them on this discussion group and
we'll answer them as best we can!
Arne
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Peter J. Brown
Pennsylvania State University
Website under construction at:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/p/j/pjb932/
		
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