[vsnet-grb-info 4044] GRB 061126: Early Detection of the IR Afterglow

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  5858
SUBJECT: GRB 061126: Early Detection of the IR Afterglow 
DATE:    06/11/26 11:44:30 GMT
FROM:    Josh Bloom at UC Berkeley  <jbloom at astron.berkeley.edu>

GRB 061126: Early Detection of the IR Afterglow

J. S. Bloom (UC Berkeley), on behalf of a larger collaboration, reports:

"We began observing the field of GRB 061126 (GCN 5854) with the  
Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL) starting at  
2006-11-26 08:48:54.3 UTC, after an automated trigger. This is 58  
seconds after the GRB trigger and 42 seconds after the BAT Position  
Notice was issued. In individual 7.8 sec exposures, we detect a  
transient source simultaneously in JHKs at position of (J2000):

   RA  05:46:24.475
   DEC +64:12:38.46

(+- 250 mas), consistent with the position of the X-ray transient  
(GCN 5855) and optical transient (GCN 5866). In a stack of 39  
exposures ending at 08:57:11.3 UTC, we find the preliminary  
magnitudes of the afterglow of:

    J = 14.12 +/- 0.03
   H = 13.26 +/- 0.03
   Ks =  12.65 +- 0.06

Imaging has continued since the trigger."

A false-color composite image of the field may be found at:
   http://lyra.berkeley.edu/~jbloom/grb061126.ps.gz

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