[vsnet-grb-info 2916] GRB 060210: ARC NIR Detection of Afterglow and Possible Host Galaxy

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  4753
SUBJECT: GRB 060210: ARC NIR Detection of Afterglow and Possible Host Galaxy
DATE:    06/02/13 04:27:48 GMT
FROM:    Don Lamb at U.Chicago  <lamb at oddjob.uchicago.edu>

GRB 060210: ARC NIR Detection of Afterglow and Possible Host Galaxy

F. Hearty (Colorado), M. Bayliss (Chicago), D. Q. Lamb (Chicago), R.
McMillan (APO), B. Ketzeback (APO), J. Barentine (APO), J. Dembicky
(APO), and D. G. York (Chicago) report:

We observed the afterglow (Fox and Cenko, GCN 4723; Li, GCN 4725, 2727;
Williams and Milne, GCN 4728, 4730; Misra, GCN 4742) of GRB 060210, a
bright burst localized by Swift (Beardmore et al. GCN 4724, 4733;
Takamoto et al. GCN 4748), on the night of February 10, using NIC-FPS
on the ARC 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory.  The
observation began at 2.65 UT on 11 February (21.75 hours after the
burst) and ended at 3.35 UT on 11 February (22.37 hours after the
burst).  The observation consisted of a series of 90 20-second
exposures in Ks.  Using these exposures, we have constructed a stacked
image of the GRB field, corresponding to a 30-minute exposure.  Further
20-second exposures amounting to a total of 3300 seconds of exposure
were taken immediately following this and are being processed.

We detect an object at greater than the 5-sigma confidence level at the
location of the optical afterglow to within 0.5".  The PSF of the
object overlaps with that of an adjacent extended source, but appears
to be consistent with that of a point source.  We identify the object 
as the NIR afterglow of GRB 060210.  We measure Ks = 19.3 ± 0.2 mag,
calibrated relative to the 2MASS stars in the field.

We also detect an extended object centered 2"-3" to the north and
immediately adjacent to the afterglow at Ks = 20.2 ± 0.3 mag, which may
be the host galaxy of the burst.

NIC-FPS is currently in its commissioning phase.