TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 7654 SUBJECT: GRB 080430: Hobby-Eberly Telescope Absorption Redshift DATE: 08/05/01 10:47:05 GMT FROM: Antonino Cucchiara at PSU A. Cucchiara and D. B. Fox (Penn State) report: "Starting on 2008 May 1.21 UT we used the Marcario LRS spectrograph on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (R ~ 230) to obtain a 1200s spectrum of the optical afterglow of GRB 080430 (Guidorzi et al., GCN 7647). The spectrum covers the wavelength range 4100 to 10,500 Angstrom. We clearly observe metal absorption features corresponding to the MgII doublet (2796, 2803 A) and MgI (2852 A) at redshift z = 0.767. The spectrum does not show any other significant features, consistent with Calar Alto telescope observations (de Ugarte Postigo et al., GCN 7650). We thank the HET staff for performing this observation."