TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 14563 SUBJECT: GRB 130505A: Swift detection of a burst with optical afterglow DATE: 13/05/05 08:36:39 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC J. K. Cannizzo (NASA/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. R. Cummings (NASA/UMBC), V. D'Elia (ASDC), C. B. Markwardt (NASA/GSFC), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU) and M. Stamatikos (OSU/NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 08:22:28 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 130505A (trigger=555163). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 137.060, +17.485 which is RA(J2000) = 09h 08m 14s Dec(J2000) = +17d 29' 06" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows a bright peak followed by a much weaker peak with a total duration of about 20 sec. The peak count rate was ~35,500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 08:24:04.7 UT, 96.4 seconds after the BAT trigger. XRT found a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 137.0626, 17.4857 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = +09h 08m 15.02s Dec(J2000) = +17d 29' 08.5" with an uncertainty of 4.8 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 9.3 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT error circle. No event data are yet available to determine the column density using X-ray spectroscopy. The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 7.35e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 106 seconds after the BAT trigger. There is a candidate afterglow in the rapidly available 2.7'x2.7' sub-image at RA(J2000) = 09:08:14.64 = 137.06100 DEC(J2000) = +17:29:05.2 = 17.48479 with a 90%-confidence error radius of about 0.74 arc sec. This position is 6.4 arc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is 14.14 with a 1-sigma error of about 0.14. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.04. Burst Advocate for this burst is J. K. Cannizzo (cannizzo AT milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov). Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)