[AAVSO-HEN] GRB 080212: REM NIR afterglow?

[grb at aavso.org]

The following is a GCN Circular circulated via the AAVSO network.
For an archive and more information on circulars visit:
http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/gamcosray/legr/bacodine/gcn3_archive.html

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  7302
SUBJECT: GRB 080212: REM NIR afterglow?
DATE:    08/02/13 08:02:40 GMT
FROM:    Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB  <paolo.davanzo at brera.inaf.it>

P. D'Avanzo, L.A. Antonelli, S. Covino, D. Fugazza, L.  Calzoletti, S. 
Campana, G.  Chincarini, M.L. Conciatore, S. Cutini, V. D'Elia, F. 
Dalessio, F.  Fiore, P. Goldoni, D. Guetta,  C. Guidorzi, G.L. Israel, 
N. Masetti, A. Melandri, E. Meurs, L. Nicastro, E. Palazzi, E. Pian, S. 
Piranomonte, L.  Stella, G.  Stratta, G. Tagliaferri, G. Tosti, V.Testa, 
S.D. Vergani,  F. Vitali report on behalf of the REM team:

The robotic 60-cm REM telescope located at La Silla (Chile) observed 
automatically the field of the GRB 080212 (Ziaeepour et al., GCN 7296). 
A preliminary analysis of the first set of H-band exposures does reveal 
the presence of an object with H ~ 15.2 inside the XRT error box (Goad 
et al., GCN 7300) at the following coordinates (J2000):

R.A. = 15:24:35.49
Dec. = -22:44:29.0

with an uncertainty of 0.3". This position lies about 3.2" (East 
direction) far from the position of the DSS galaxy (Berger, GCN 7294). 
This object could thus be the NIR afterglow of GRB 080212. The 3sigma 
upper limit of our image is H > 15.7 (calibrated  against the 2MASS 
catalog).

Further analysis is in progress.