TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 9754 SUBJECT: GRB 090809: Swift detection of a burst with a possible optical counterpart DATE: 09/08/09 17:51:30 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC C. B. Markwardt (CRESST/GSFC/UMD), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), M. M. Chester (PSU), A. de Ugarte Postigo (INAF-OAB), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara), S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), N. P. M. Kuin (MSSL), W.B Landsman (GSFC), J. Mao (INAF-OAB), R. Margutti (Univ Bicocca&OAB), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester), K. L. Page (U Leicester), P. Romano (INAF-IASFPA) and M. H. Siegel (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 17:31:14 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 090809 (trigger=359530). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 328.645, -0.083 which is RA(J2000) = 21h 54m 35s Dec(J2000) = -00d 04' 59" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows a weak peak with a duration of about 10 sec. The peak count rate was ~900 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~1 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 17:32:58.5 UT, 104.0 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 328.67772, -0.08465 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 21h 54m 42.65s Dec(J2000) = -00d 05' 04.7" with an uncertainty of 4.5 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 117 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT error circle. This position may be improved as more data are received; the latest position is available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper. A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (6.08e+20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 2.5 (+2.71/-2.28) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 86 seconds with the White filter starting 107 seconds after the BAT trigger. A possible afterglow candidate has been found in the list of sources generated on-board, located at RA=328.68008 (21:54:43.22), dec=-0.08385 (-00:05:01.9), with an estimated White magnitude = 19.9 +/-0.4. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image does not include the XRT position. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.10. Burst Advocate for this burst is C. B. Markwardt (Craig.Markwardt AT 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.)