TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 17303 SUBJECT: Swift detection of the variable star SZ Psc DATE: 15/01/15 09:36:31 GMT FROM: Kim Page at U.of Leicester V. D'Elia (ASDC), M. De Pasquale (INAF-IASFPA), P. A. Evans (U Leicester), H. A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), A. Maselli (INAF-IASFPA), K. L. Page (U Leicester), T. Sakamoto (AGU) and B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 09:08:42 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located a source (trigger=625898). Swift slewed immediately to this location. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 348.364, +2.679 which is RA(J2000) = 23h 13m 27s Dec(J2000) = +02d 40' 45" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). This is a 320-s image trigger. As is usual with an image trigger, the rapidly available BAT light curve shows no significant features. The XRT began observing the field at 09:15:03.4 UT, 380.5 seconds after the BAT trigger. XRT found a bright X-ray source located at RA, Dec 348.3493, 2.6753 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = +23h 13m 23.83s Dec(J2000) = +02d 40' 31.1" with an uncertainty of 4.9 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 54 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT error circle. This position is 4.1 arcseconds from that of a known X-ray source: XMMSL1 J231323.5+024033 in the XMM-NEWTON XMMSLEWCLN catalogue, also known as SZ Psc, a RS CVn variable type. 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 3.72e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 389 seconds after the BAT trigger. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 100% of the XRT error circle. The source appears saturated. The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the XRT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.05.