[vsnet-grb-info 4130] GRB 061218, SMARTS optical/IR observations

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  5938
SUBJECT: GRB 061218, SMARTS optical/IR observations
DATE:    06/12/18 05:35:07 GMT
FROM:    Bethany Cobb at Yale U  <cobb at astro.yale.edu>

B. E. Cobb (Yale), part of the larger SMARTS consortium, reports:

Using the ANDICAM instrument on the 1.3m telescope at CTIO, we
obtained optical/IR imaging of the error region of GRB 061218
(GCN 5936, Zane et al.), with a mid-exposure time of
2006-12-18 04:44:48 UT, which is ~0.7 hours post-burst.   
Our optical images have a field of view of 6'x6' and,
therefore, cover the entire GRB error circle.
Our IR images have a smaller field of view, covering a region
totaling ~6 square arcminutes in the middle of the quoted error region.
Several dithered images were obtained in each filter, 
with total summed exposure times of 180s in each of BRIYJK and 
120s in each of H and V.

Preliminary visual comparison of the optical images to the DSS 
and the IR images to 2MASS frames does not reveal any new sources
to the limit of the comparison frames.