TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 42947 SUBJECT: GRB 251202A: GOTO optical afterglow detection DATE: 25/12/02 13:55:02 GMT FROM: d.s.oneill@bham.ac.uk
D. O’Neill, S. Moran, G. Ramsay, R. Starling, B. P. Gompertz, K. Ackley, M. Dyer, J. Lyman, K. Ulaczyk, D. Steeghs, D. Galloway, V. Dhillon, P. O'Brien, K. Noysena, R. Kotak, R. Breton, J. Casares, L. Nuttall, B. Godson, T. Killestein, A. Kumar and M. Pursiainen report on behalf of GOTO collaboration:
We report on optical observations with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO; Steeghs et al. 2022, Dyer et al. 2024) in response to the GRB 251202A (Fermi GBM team, GCN 42923; Einstein Probe, GCN 42937).
Targeted observations were performed beginning at 2025-12-02 03:00:49 UT, (+1.19h post trigger). Images were processed immediately after acquisition using the GOTO pipeline. Difference imaging was performed using deeper template observations.
We detect the counterpart (Moss et al., GCN 42924; Osborne et al., GCN 42927; Goyal et al., GCN 42925; Li et al., GCN 42931; Sbarufatti et al. GCN 42943) with magnitude L = 17.92 ± 0.04 AB mag (+1.71h), before fading to L = 18.83 ± 0.07 AB mag (+4.3h).
Magnitudes were calibrated using ATLAS-REFCAT2 (Tonry et al. 2018) and not corrected for Galactic extinction.
GOTO (https://goto-observatory.org) is a network of telescopes that is principally funded by the STFC and operated at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Spain, and Siding Spring Observatory in NSW, Australia, on behalf of a consortium including the University of Warwick, Monash University, Armagh Observatory & Planetarium, the University of Leicester, the University of Sheffield, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), the University of Turku, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).
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