[vsnet-grb-info 11742] GRB 120327A: Gemini-South redshift

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  13133
SUBJECT: GRB 120327A: Gemini-South redshift
DATE:    12/03/27 07:35:33 GMT
FROM:    Daniel Perley at Caltech  <dperley at astro.caltech.edu>

D. A. Perley (Caltech) and N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester) report on behalf 
of a larger collaboration:

On March 27 starting at 06:01 UT (186 minutes after the BAT trigger) we 
began spectroscopic observations of the optical afterglow of GRB 120327A 
(Sbarufatti et al., GCN 13123) using GMOS-South on the Gemini-South 8-m 
telescope.  We acquired four exposures of 800s each using the B600 
grating, with wavelength coverage between 3865-6680 Angstroms.

In the reduced spectrum we identify a strong damped Lyman-alpha system 
at z=2.81 as well as numerous narrow absorption lines corresponding to 
(among others) CIV, CII, OI, SiII at the same redshift, as well as 
possible Lyman-beta.   We therefore identify this as the redshift of the 
GRB.

We thank German Gimeno and the Gemini staff for prompt execution of the 
observations.