[vsnet-grb-info 6186] GRB 080603B: Hobby-Eberly Telescope redshift confirmation

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  7815
SUBJECT: GRB 080603B: Hobby-Eberly Telescope redshift confirmation
DATE:    08/06/04 17:51:00 GMT
FROM:    Antonino Cucchiara at PSU  <cucchiara at astro.psu.edu>

A. Cucchiara and D. B. Fox (Penn State) report:

"Starting on 2008 June 4.13 UT we used the Marcario LRS spectrograph
on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (R ~ 230) to obtain 2 x 900s spectra
of the optical afterglow of GRB 080603B (GCN 7792, GCN 7794).
The spectrum covers the wavelength range 4500 to 10,000 Angstrom.

We clearly detect the Lyman break and several metal absorption features
corresponding to a redshift z = 2.69.
No other systems are detected and our result confirms the redshift
determination by Fynbo et al. (GCN 7797).

We thank the HET staff for performing this challenging observation,
in particular Matthew Shetrone."