TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  17451
SUBJECT: GRB150212A: P60 Afterglow Candidate
DATE:    15/02/12 11:47:36 GMT
FROM:    S. Bradley Cenko at NASA/GSFC  <brad.cenko@nasa.gov>

S. B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC) reports on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We have imaged the field of the Swift GRB150212A (Page et al., GCN 17449) with the robotic Palomar 60 inch telescope.  Observations were obtained in the Sloan riz filters beginning at 11:12 UT (~ 15 min after the Swift trigger).  We identify a bright source in the BAT error circle not present in archival DSS imaging of the field in all 3 filters:

   RA: 19:01:53.92
   Dec: +47:26:10.7

We measure a preliminary magnitude of r = 16.8 at ~ 15 min after the Swift trigger (calibration performed with respect to nearby point sources from the APASS catalog).  While we have not yet confirmed fading, we consider this source to be the likely optical afterglow of GRB150212A.