GRB 991208

B. Stecklum, S. Klose (Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg),
O. Fischer (Universitäts-Sternwarte Jena),
F. J. Vrba, A. A. Henden, C. B. Luginbuhl, B. Canzian, S. E. Levine, H. H. Guetter, J. A. Munn (U.S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff),
A. Castro-Tirado (LAEFF-INTA, Madrid, and IAA-CSIC, Granada),
J. Greiner (AIP Potsdam),
J. Gorosabel (LAEFF-INTA, Madrid, and University of Amsterdam), and
A. Riffeser (Universitäts-Sternwarte München) report:

The error box of GRB 991208 (Hurley et al., GCN  450) was observed with the Tautenburg Schmidt telescope on 1999 Dec. 11th in the I band. An object was found (Fig. 1) whose position corresponds to that of the VLA radio source which is  a strong candidate for the afterglow from GRB 991208  (Frail et al. 1999, GCN 451).  This optical source is not visible in the Digitized Sky Survey. The detection of the radio and optical sources which coincide in their positions within the astrometric errors strongly supports the view that their origin is the afterglow of the GRB.  Photometric calibration of the I-band image is in progress. The comparison of the brightness of the newly found object with nearby USNO stars indicates an I magnitude of about 19...19.5 mag. The  presence of the optical source is confirmed by independent observations of Castro-Tirado et al . (GCN 452)

Fig. 1: I-band image of  the presumed afterglow of GRB 991208 taken with the Tautenburg Schmidt telescope   on 1999 Dec 11.21 UT with a total integration time of 15 minutes. The reference position [0,0] corresponds to that of the proposed radio counterpart of GRB 991208. The comparison  of the I-band image with the optical contours drawn from the DSS2 image shows that object situated at the reference position does not have an DSS2 counterpart.
Click on the image to see it at nominal resolution.
 
 

Any use of these data should be accompanied by a reference.
 

B. Stecklum ,Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg.
 
 

Last modified: December 12, 1999