//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15944 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Swift detection of a probable burst DATE: 14/03/11 21:20:47 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), L. Izzo (URoma/ICRA), J. A. Kennea (PSU), H. A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), V. Mangano (PSU), D. M. Palmer (LANL), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU) and T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 21:05:16 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 140311A (trigger=591390). Swift could not immediately slew to the burst due to the Earth limb constraint. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 209.301, +0.612 which is RA(J2000) = 13h 57m 12s Dec(J2000) = +00d 36' 41" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). This is an image trigger and we cannot say much about the light curve. Due to an observing constraint, Swift will not slew until T0+50.6 minutes. There will be no XRT or UVOT data until this time. Burst Advocate for this burst is J. L. Racusin (judith.racusin 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.) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15945 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 14/03/11 21:36:02 GMT FROM: Judith Racusin at GSFC J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), L. Izzo (URoma/ICRA), J. A. Kennea (PSU), D. Malesani (DARK/NBI), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU) and T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 21:14:29 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 140311B (trigger=591392). Swift could not immediately slew to the burst due to the Earth limb constraint. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 252.291, +52.747 which is RA(J2000) = 16h 49m 10s Dec(J2000) = +52d 44' 50" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). We are awaiting information on the BAT light curve. Due to an observing constraint, Swift will not slew until T0+55 minutes. There will be no XRT or UVOT data until this time. The observation of this burst will delay the observation of GRB 140311A. Burst Advocate for this burst is J. L. Racusin (judith.racusin 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.) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15946 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: MASTER early optical observations DATE: 14/03/11 21:53:51 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, M. Pruzhinskaya, D.Denisenko, V.Kornilov, N.Tyurina, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov, V.V.Chazov, D.Kuvshinov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute K.Ivanov, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk Irkutsk State University V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, E.Sinyakov Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnih, A. Popov Ural Federal University, Kourovka Hugo Levato and Carlos Saffe Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE) Claudio Mallamaci, Carlos Lopez and Federico Podest Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) MASTER II robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in Tunka was pointed to the GRB140311A 27 sec after trigger time and 127 sec after trigger time at 2014-03-11 21:07:23 UT in two polarizations. On our first (30s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within SWIFT error-box (Racusin et. al GCN 15944). The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 16.27mag MASTER II robotic telescope located in Blagoveschensk was pointed to the GRB140311A 10 sec after notice time and 89 sec after trigger time at 2014-03-11 21:06:45 UT in two polarizations. On our first (20s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within SWIFT error-box. The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 14mag. The observations made on the morning sky. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15947 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Nanshan OT detection DATE: 14/03/11 21:56:00 GMT FROM: Dong Xu at DARK/NBI D. Xu (DARK/NBI), C.-H. Bai, X. Zhang, A. Esamdin, L. Ma (XAO) report: We observed the BAT error circle of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al., GCN 15944) using the 1m telescope located in Nanshan, Xinjiang, China. Observations started at 21:26:44 UT on 2014-03-11 and some R-band frames were obtained. A seemingly varying optical source is clearly detected in each image at coordinates R.A. (J2000) = 13:57:13.27 Dec. (J2000) = +00:38:31.07 Uncertainty radius: ~1 aecsec This object is not present in both SDSS and DSS. We thus suggest it may be the afterglow of the burst. Observations are ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15948 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: MASTER early optical observations DATE: 14/03/11 22:02:51 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, M. Pruzhinskaya, D.Denisenko, V.Kornilov, N.Tyurina, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov, V.V.Chazov, D.Kuvshinov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute K.Ivanov, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk Irkutsk State University V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, E.Sinyakov Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnih, A. Popov Ural Federal University, Kourovka Hugo Levato and Carlos Saffe Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE) Claudio Mallamaci, Carlos Lopez and Federico Podest Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) MASTER II robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in Tunka was pointed to the GRB140311B 29 sec after notice time and 107 sec after trigger time at 2014-03-11 21:16:16 UT in two polarizations. On our first (20s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within SWIFT error-box (Racusin et. al. GCN 15945). The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 17.0 mag. The observations is proceed. MASTER II robotic telescope located in Blagoveschensk was pointed to the GRB140311B 9 sec after notice time and 85 sec after trigger time at 2014-03-11 21:15:54 UT in two polarizations. On our first (20s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within SWIFT error-box. The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 14.0 mag. The observations on this place made on the bright morning sky. The message may be cited. [GCN OPS NOTE(12mar14): Per author's request, the Subject was changed from "MASTER OT light curve (fwd)" to "MASTER early optical observations".] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15949 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Nanshan afterglow detection DATE: 14/03/11 22:52:01 GMT FROM: Dong Xu at DARK/NBI D. Xu (DARK/NBI), C.-H. Bai, X. Zhang, A. Esamdin, L. Ma (XAO) report: We observed the field of GRB 140311B (Racusin et al., GCN 15945) using the 1m telescope located in Nanshan, Xinjiang, China. Observations started at 21:41:05 UT on 2014-03-11 and some 300s/600s R-band frames were obtained. The afterglow is detected in each image within the XRT error circle (http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper/) at coordinates R.A. (J2000) = 16:49:17.97 Dec. (J2000) = +52:43:26.41 Uncertainty radius: ~1.5 aecsec The first 300s image reveals that the afterglow has m(R)=20.6 at 29.1 min post-burst, calibrated with nearby two SDSS stars. Observations are ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15950 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Swift-XRT observations DATE: 14/03/11 23:07:34 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB), S. Campana (INAF-OAB) and P.A. Evans (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: The XRT began observing the field of GRB 140311B at 22:11:04.3 UT, 3394.7 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 252.32458, 52.72393 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 16h 49m 17.90s Dec(J2000) = +52d 43' 26.1" with an uncertainty of 3.6 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 110 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 consistent with the Galactic value of 3.03 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15951 SUBJECT: GRB140311B: Swift/XRT position DATE: 14/03/11 23:08:55 GMT FROM: Valerio D'Elia at ASDC V. D'Elia (ASDC), L. Izzo (URoma/ICRA) and J. Racusin (NASA/GSFC) report: XRT began observing GRB140311B (Racusin et al. GCN 15945) 55 minutes after the trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright uncatalogued X ray source located at RA,Dec = 252.3242, 52.7240 which is equivalent to: RA  (J2000.0) =  16 49 17.81 DEC (J2000.0) =  +52 43 26.4 with an uncertainty of 3.6 arcsec (radius, 90% containment). This location is 109.6 arcsec from the BAT position, inside the BAT error circle. This is an official product of the Swift/XRT team. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15952 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Zadko observatory - Gingin optical observations DATE: 14/03/12 00:10:54 GMT FROM: Alain Klotz at IRAP-CNRS-OMP A. Klotz, D. Turpin (IRAP-CNRS-OMP), D. Macpherson (UWA/ICRAR), D. Coward (UWA), M. Boer, B. Gendre, K. Siellez, H. Dereli, O. Bardho (UNS-CNRS-OCA), A. Williams (PO-UWA), R. Martin (PO-UWA) report: We imaged the field of GRB 140311A detected by SWIFT (trigger 591390) with the Zadko robotic telescope (D=100cm) located at the observatory - Gingin, Australia. The observations started 119.5s after the GRB trigger (46.9s after the notice). The elevation of the field was at 45 degrees above horizon and weather conditions were good. The first image is trailed with a duration of 60.0s (see the description in Klotz et al., 2006, A&A 451, L39). We do not detect the OT discovered by Xu et al. GCNC 15947 with a limiting magnitude of: t0+119.5s to t0+179.5s : Rlim = 19.5 The second image is 30.0s exposure in tracking mode We detect the OT discovered by Xu et al. GCNC 15947: t0+208s to t0+238s : R = 19.6 +/- 0.5 Follow-up was performed until the dawn which arrived 18 minutes after the trigger. We co-added a series of exposures: t0+208s to t0+325s : R = 19.9 +/- 0.3 t0+338s to t0+515s : R = 19.2 +/- 0.3 t0+530s to t0+1111s : R = 18.5 +/- 0.3 Conclusions, the afterglow brightness increases slowly during the first 18 minutes after the trigger. Magnitudes were estimated with the nearby star NOMAD1 0906-0229793 (R=16.44) and are not corrected for galactic dust extinction. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15953 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: NOT observations of the optical afterglow DATE: 14/03/12 00:36:08 GMT FROM: Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB P. D'Avanzo, A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), D. Malesani (Dark/NBI), T. Pursimo (NOT), M. C. Baglio, I. Andreoni (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the CIBO collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al. GCN 15944) with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with ALFOSC. The optical afterglow reported by Xu et al. (GCN 15947) and Klotz et al. (GCN 15952) is detected in the R band at 21.1 +/- 0.2 mag (calibrated against the USNOB1 catalogue) at t-t0=2.6 hours. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15954 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Optical follow-up observation with Kottamia 188cm telescope DATE: 14/03/12 00:41:43 GMT FROM: Michitoshi Yoshida at HASC,Hiroshima U M. Yoshida, R. Itoh, Y. Moritani (HASC, Hiroshima Univ.), G. B. Ali, A. Essam, A. Takey, and G. Hamed (NRIAG, Egypt) We made an optical follow-up observation of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al. GCN 15944) with the Newtonian CCD camera attached to the 188cm telescope at Kottamia astronomical observatory of NRIAG in Egypt. We started the observation at 22:08:26 UT on Marth 11 2014; 1.053 hours after the trigger. We combined six 300 sec exposure R-band frames and detected a faint point source at the position of the optical transient reported by Xu et al. (GCN 15947). Rough photometric result of the source is shown below. We used the nearby star NOMAD1 0906-022793 (Klotz et al. GCN 15952) for flux calibration. MID-UT T-EXP[sec] R[mag] err[mag] ---------------------------------------- 23:19:29 1800.0 21.9 +- 0.3 ---------------------------------------- //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15955 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: TAROT Calern observatory optical observations DATE: 14/03/12 00:42:49 GMT FROM: Alain Klotz at IRAP-CNRS-OMP Klotz A., Turpin D. (IRAP-CNRS-OMP), Gendre B., Boer M., Siellez K., Dereli H., Bardho O. (UNS-CNRS-OCA), Atteia J.L. (IRAP-CNRS-OMP) report: We imaged the field of GRB 140311B detected by SWIFT (trigger 513505) with the TAROT robotic telescope (D=25cm) located at the Calern observatory, France. The observations started 5 minutes after the GRB trigger The elevation of the field increased from 20 degrees above horizon and weather conditions were good. The first image is 60.0s exposure in tracking mode. We do not detect the OT discovered by Xu et al. (GCNC 15949) with a limiting magnitude of: t0+246s to t0+306s : Rlim = 17.3 We co-added a series of exposures: We do not detect the OT with limiting magnitudes of: t0+246s to t0+511s : Rlim = 17.8 t0+541s to t0+1568s : Rlim = 18.4 Magnitudes were estimated with the nearby NOMAD1 stars and are not corrected for galactic dust extinction. N.B. Galactic coordinates are lon= 80.3934 lat=+39.5637 and the galactic extinction in R band is about 0.2 magnitude estimated from D. Schlegel et al. 1998ApJ...500..525S. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15956 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Nanshan afterglow decay DATE: 14/03/12 00:51:27 GMT FROM: Dong Xu at DARK/NBI D. Xu (DARK/NBI), C.-H. Bai, X. Zhang, A. Esamdin, L. Ma (XAO) report: The previously reported afterglow candidate (Xu et al., GCN 15947) has been decaying throughout our R-band observations. Part of the photometry are listed below Tmid (hr) Mag(R) MagErr(R) 2.06778 21.06 0.10 1.53056 20.80 0.10 0.49306 19.96 0.10 All magnitude are calibrated with the following three SDSS stars using Lupton (2005) transformation: SDSS J135709.54+003731.9 m(r)=16.81, m(i)=16.30 SDSS J135716.45+003657.3 m(r)=16.41, m(i)=16.10 SDSS J135713.38+003942.0 m(r)=18.57, m(i)=18.47 Together with measurements in Klotz et al. (GCN 15952) and D'Avanzo et al. (GCN 15953), it shows that the optical afterglow peaks at ~0.23 hr post-burst and is decaying roughly as F(t) ~ t^-0.75 since ~0.5 hr post-burst. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15957 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Recalibration of photometry of OT detected with Kottamia 188cm telescope DATE: 14/03/12 01:06:41 GMT FROM: Michitoshi Yoshida at HASC,Hiroshima U M. Yoshida, R. Itoh, Y. Moritani (HASC, Hiroshima Univ.), G. B. Ali, A. Essam, A. Takey, and G. Hamed (NRIAG, Egypt) We performed recalibration of the photometry of the OT of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al. GCN 15944), and found that the R-band magnitude we previously reported (Yoshida et al. GCN 15954) is about 1 magnitude fainter than the newly calibrated value. The recalibration result is as follows: MID-UT T-EXP[sec] R[mag] err[mag] ---------------------------------------- 23:19:29 1800.0 20.9 +- 0.3 ---------------------------------------- //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15958 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 14/03/12 02:30:17 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans, M.R. Goad, J.P. Osborne and A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Using 2577 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 6 UVOT images for GRB 140311B, we find an astrometrically corrected X-ray position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 252.32518, +52.72426 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 16h 49m 18.04s Dec (J2000): +52d 43' 27.3" with an uncertainty of 1.7 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This position may be improved as more data are received. The latest position can be viewed at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions. Position enhancement is described by Goad et al. (2007, A&A, 476, 1401) and Evans et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1177). This circular was automatically generated, and is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15959 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 14/03/12 09:56:51 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans and M.R. Goad (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: Using 1977 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 4 UVOT images, we find an astrometrically corrected X-ray position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 209.30516, 0.64193 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 13 57 13.24 Dec (J2000): +00 38 31.0 with an uncertainty of 1.8 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This position may be improved as more data are received. The latest position can be viewed at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions. Position enhancement is described by Goad et al. (2007, A&A, 476, 1401) and Evans et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1177). This position is 0.5 arc sec from the optical counterpart reported by Xu et al (GCN Circ. 15947), thus we believe this is the X-ray afterglow. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15960 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: final MASTER OT light curve DATE: 14/03/12 10:53:33 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs K.Ivanov, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk Irkutsk State University E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, M. Pruzhinskaya, D.Denisenko, V.Kornilov, N.Tyurina, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov, V.V.Chazov, D.Kuvshinov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, E.Sinyakov Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnih, A. Popov Ural Federal University, Kourovka Hugo Levato and Carlos Saffe Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE) Claudio Mallamaci, Carlos Lopez and Federico Podest Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) MASTER-II robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in Tunka was pointed to the GRB140311B (Racusin et al., GCN 15945) 29 sec after notice time and 107 sec after trigger time (Gorbovskoy et. al GCN 15948 ) and made observations during ~ 1.5 h before sunrise. We see OT (Xu et. al. GCN 15949) only on several coadditional images. On all of them the object is close to limit and has s/n from 3 to 6. Our preliminary ligth curve available in table below and on image here http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/GRB/grb140311B.png. T_start T_t-T_m Exptime Mag. Coadd [s] [s] [m] 21:17:12 326 220 19.4 4 21:18:18 432 300 19.0 4 21:16:16 557 650 19.4 8 21:19:44 557 380 18.7 4 21:19:44 661 550 18.9 5 21:21:19 708 490 18.9 4 21:18:18 834 960 19.4 8 21:25:40 1485 1380 19.8 8 21:25:40 1702 1740 20.0 10 T_t is GRB trigger time, T_m is middle time of our exposure. Our unfiltered magnitude is well described by a parity 0.8R + 0.2B (USNO B1) The power low index alpha from 380 to 1740 seconds after the trigger is 1.07+-0.10 (F ~ t-apha). We also apologize for an error in the title of our previous telegram (GCN 15948) if it misled somebody. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15961 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Gemini-South redshift DATE: 14/03/12 11:51:40 GMT FROM: Nial Tanvir at U.Leicester N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), A. J. Levan (U. Warwick), K. Wiersema (U. Leicester), A. Cucchiara (NASA/GSFC) report: We observed the afterglow of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al. GCN 15944; Xu et al. GCN 15947) with Gemini-South using the GMOS-S spectrograph, beginning March 12 08:24 UT, approximately 11.3 hours post-trigger. The spectrograph was configured to cover wavelength range from about 4000 AA to 6700 AA. The optical trace of the afterglow is clearly detected, with many absorption lines suggesting we are only seeing the region blueward of Ly-alpha in the rest frame. Based on several strong absorption features and a break, which would correspond to Ly-beta, Ly-gamma, Ly-delta and the Ly-limit at approximately z=4.95, we conclude this is likely to be the redshift of the GRB. Further analysis of the spectrum is ongoing. We thank the observatory staff, particularly Peter Pessev, for excellent support in obtaining these observations. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15962 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 14/03/12 12:37:56 GMT FROM: Hans Krimm at NASA-GSFC H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA),S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (GSFC),A. Y. Lien (NASA/UMBC), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC),T. Sakamoto (AGU), M. Stamatikos (OSU),J. Tueller (GSFC),T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-239 to T+423 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 140311A (trigger #591390) (Racusin, et al., GCN Circ. 15944). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 209.293, 0.607 deg which is RA(J2000) = 13h 57m 10.4s Dec(J2000) = +00d 36' 23.9" with an uncertainty of 3.8 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 10%. The mask-weighted light curve shows two weak peaks, the first from roughly T-5 sec to T+5 sec and the second from approximately T+40 to T+60 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 71.4 +- 9.5 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from -4.456 to 83.736 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 1.67 +- 0.23. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 2.3 +- 0.3 x 10^-6 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T-2.40 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 1.3 +- 0.5 ph/cm2/sec. All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. The results of the batgrbproduct analysis are available at http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_s/591390/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15963 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 14/03/12 13:20:17 GMT FROM: Valerio D'Elia at ASDC V. D'Elia (ASDC), L. Izzo (URoma/ICRA) and J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 7.8 ks of XRT data for GRB 140311B (Racusin et al. GCN Circ. 15945), from 3.4 ks to 46.3 ks after the BAT trigger. The data are entirely in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Evans et al. (GCN Circ. 15958). The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.66 (+0.18, -0.15). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.68 (+0.25, -0.23). The best-fitting absorption column is 1.6 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 3.6 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 4.1 x 10^-11 (4.9 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 1.6 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 3.6 x 10^20 cm^-2 Excess significance: 2.7 sigma Photon index: 1.68 (+0.25, -0.23) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 1.66, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 9.6 x 10^-4 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 4.0 x 10^-14 (4.8 x 10^-14) erg cm^-2 s^-1. The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00591392. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15964 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: NOT redshift confirmation DATE: 14/03/12 13:37:59 GMT FROM: Valerio D'Elia at ASDC P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (INAF-OAR/ASI-ASDC), S. Piranomonte (INAF-OAR), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), D. Malesani (DARK/NBI), T. Pursimo (NOT), M. C. Baglio, I. Andreoni (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the CIBO collaboration: Following the detection of the optical afterglow reported in D'Avanzo et al. (GCN 15953), we carried out optical spectroscopy of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al. GCN 15944) with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with ALFOSC. The observation consisted of two 1800 s exposures covering the range between 3200 and 9100 A carried out at a mean t-t0=3.37 hours. Despite the low SNR and a seeing of ~2, we detect broad absorption features at lambda ~ 7300 and 6100 AA which we interpret as Ly-alpha and Ly-beta at z ~ 5. This is consistent with the redshift reported by Tanvir et al(GCN 15961). ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15966 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Gemini-North redshift DATE: 14/03/12 16:33:51 GMT FROM: Ryan Chornock at Harvard R. Chornock (Harvard), D. B. Fox (Penn State), N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), and E. Berger (Harvard) report: We obtained 2x900s of spectroscopy of the optical afterglow (Xu et al., GCN 15947) of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al., GCN 15944) using GMOS on the 8-m Gemini-N telescope beginning at 12:56 UT on March 12. We used the R831 grating to cover the wavelength range of 6950-9075 Angs at a resolution of approximately 2.8 Angs. Our data exhibit a broad damped Lyman-alpha feature centered near 7250 Angs (redshift~4.95), in agreement with previous reports from Gemini-South (Tanvir et al., GCN 15961) and NOT (D'Avanzo et al., GCN 15964). In addition, we detect many metal lines, including C II, C II*, O I, O I*, Si II, Si II*, and Si IV at a common redshift of 4.954, which we adopt as the redshift of the GRB. We thank the Gemini staff, particularly Jesse Ball, for their excellent assistance in obtaining these data. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15968 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 14/03/12 17:02:28 GMT FROM: Luca Izzo at ICRA L. Izzo (URoma/ICRA), V. D'Elia (ASDC) and J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 6.2 ks of XRT data for GRB 140311A (Racusin et al. GCN Circ. 15944), from 9.5 ks to 57.1 ks after the BAT trigger. The data are entirely in Photon Counting (PC) mode. Using 2850 s of PC mode data and 7 UVOT images, we find an enhanced XRT position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 209.30521, +0.64191 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 13h 57m 13.25s Dec(J2000): +00d 38' 30.9" with an uncertainty of 1.5 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.13 (+0.16, -0.14). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.61 (+0.17, -0.12). The best-fitting absorption column is consistent with the Galactic value of 2.8 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.9 x 10^-11 (4.1 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Galactic foreground: 2.8 x 10^20 cm^-2 Intrinsic column: 0 (+2.2, -0) x 10^22 cm^-2 at z=4.95 Photon index: 1.61 (+0.17, -0.12) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 1.13, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.013 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 5.1 x 10^-13 (5.3 x 10^-13) erg cm^-2 s^-1. The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00591390 This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15969 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Bassano Bresciano Observatory optical upper limit DATE: 14/03/12 17:12:37 GMT FROM: Ulisse Quadri at Bassano Bresciano Obs U.Quadri, L.Strabla and R.Girelli report: We imaged the field of GRB 140311A detected by SWIFT(trigger 591390) with the robotic telescope of (IAU station 565) Bassano Bresciano Observatory, Italy (member of ISSP:Italian Supernovae Search Project) The observations started 1.89 hour after the GRB trigger, with our Newton telescope D=250 mm F/D=5. Weather conditions were good. We co-added 15 exposures of 120 sec each. We did not found any optical counterpart in the error box of the XRTcandidate. (J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC) et al, GCN 15944) Start T0+ End T0+ R.Lim 1.89 hour 2.37 hour 18.5 Magnitudes were estimated with the USNO-B1.0 cat. and are not corrected for galactic dust extinction. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15970 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: RATIR Optical and NIR Observations DATE: 14/03/12 17:17:37 GMT FROM: Owen Littlejohns at Az State U Owen Littlejohns (ASU), Antonino Cucchiara (ORAU/GSFC), Nat Butler (ASU), Alan M. Watson (UNAM), Alexander Kutyrev (GSFC), William H. Lee (UNAM), Michael G. Richer (UNAM), Chris Klein (UCB), Ori Fox (UCB), J. Xavier Prochaska (UCSC), Josh Bloom (UCB), Eleonora Troja (GSFC), Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (UCSC), José A. de Diego (UNAM), Leonid Georgiev (UNAM), Jesús González (UNAM), Carlos Román-Zúñiga (UNAM), Neil Gehrels (GSFC), and Harvey Moseley (GSFC) report: We observed the field of GRB 140311B (Racusin, et al., GCN 15945) with the Reionization and Transients Infrared Camera (RATIR; www.ratir.org) on the 1.5m Harold Johnson Telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on Sierra San Pedro Mártir from 2014/03 12.37 to 2014/03 12.52 UTC (11.52 to 15.25 hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 2.84 hours exposure in the r and i bands and 1.19 hours exposure in the Z and Y bands. For a source within the Swift-XRT error circle, in comparison with the SDSS DR9 and 2MASS, we obtain the following upper limits (3-sigma): r > 23.99 i > 23.82 Z > 22.85 Y > 22.26 These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic extinction in the direction of the GRB. In comparison to the earlier detection of the optical afterglow (Xu, et al., GCN 15949) the GRB has faded. A power-law temporal decay with an index of alpha = -0.94 or steeper is required for our r-band upper limit to be consistent with the earlier detection. We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro Mártir. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15972 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 14/03/12 19:26:59 GMT FROM: Stephen Holland at STScI S. T. Holland (STScI) and J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 140311B 3398 s after the BAT trigger (Racusin et al. 2014, GCNC 15945). We do not detect any new source consistent with the Nansan afterglow position (Xu et al. 2014, GCNC 15949) in any of the UVOT exposures. Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits, using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373), for the finding chart and summed exposures are presented below. --------------------------------------------------- Filter TSTART TSTOP Exposure Mag --------------------------------------------------- white (FC) 3398 3548 147 >21.2 --------------------------------------------------- v 3555 5191 393 >20.0 b 4375 5990 372 >20.4 u 4170 5806 393 >20.2 uvw1 3965 5601 393 >20.3 uvm2 3760 5396 393 >20.2 uvw2 4787 4986 197 >20.1 white 4580 4780 197 >21.4 --------------------------------------------------- The quoted upper limits have not been corrected for the expected extinction due to the Galactic reddening along the line of sight to this burst of E(B-V) = 0.05 mag (Schlafly et al. 2011, ApJS, 737, 103). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15973 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 14/03/12 19:27:01 GMT FROM: Stephen Holland at STScI S. T. Holland (STScI) and J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 140311A 9540 s after the BAT trigger (Racusin et al. 2014, GCNC 15944). We do not detect any new source consistent with the Nansan afterglow position (Xu et al. 2014, GCNC 15947) in any of the UVOT exposures. Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits, using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373), for the summed exposures are presented below. --------------------------------------------------- Filter TSTART TSTOP Exposure Mag --------------------------------------------------- v 11,358 11,533 171 >19.0 b 37,852 38,759 885 >21.3 uvw1 40,124 40,366 238 >19.8 uvw2 10,542 11,352 886 >21.2 white 9540 10,446 885 >22.0 --------------------------------------------------- The quoted upper limits have not been corrected for the expected extinction due to the Galactic reddening along the line of sight to this burst of E(B-V) = 0.03 mag (Schlafly et al. 2011, ApJS, 737, 103). The non-detection in the UVOT data is consistent with a redshift of z = 4.95 (Tanvir et al, 2014, GCNC 15961). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15974 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Kottamia I-band observation DATE: 14/03/12 19:43:56 GMT FROM: Michitoshi Yoshida at HASC,Hiroshima U M. Yoshida, R. Itoh, Y. Moritani (HASC, Hiroshima Univ.), G. B. Ali, A. Essam, A. Takey, and G. Hamed (NRIAG, Egypt) We report the I-band photometry of GRB 140311A. The observation was performed with the Newtonian camera of the 188cm telescope at Kottamia observatory just before the R-band observation reported by Yoshida et al. (GCN 15954; 15957). We started the I-band observation at 21:57:30 UT on Marth 11 2014; 0.8706 hours after the trigger. Photometric result of the source is shown below. We used the nearby star NOMAD1 0906-0229809 for flux calibration. MID-UT T-EXP[sec] I[mag] err[mag] --------------------------------------------------- 2014-03-11 22:02:45 300.0 x 2 19.0 +- 0.1 --------------------------------------------------- //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15975 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Fermi GBM Detection DATE: 14/03/12 20:40:40 GMT FROM: Matthew Stanbro at UAH/Fermi M. Stanbro (UAH) reports on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team: "At 21:14:35.65 UT on 11 March 2014, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor triggered and located GRB 140311B (trigger 416265278/140311885), which was also detected by Swift (J. L. Racusin et al. 2014, GCN 15945). The GBM on-ground location, using the Fermi GBM trigger data, is consistent with the Swift/BAT location.The angle to the Fermi LAT boresight is 110 deg. from Swift location. The GBM light curve consists of several overlapping peaks with a combined duration (T90) of 72 s (50-300 keV). The time-averaged spectrum from T0-3 s to T0+69 s is well fit by a power law function with an exponential high energy cutoff. The power law index is -0.5 +/- 0.1 and the high energy cutoff, parameterized as Epeak, is 117 +/- 8 keV. The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is (7.9 +/- 0.4)E-06 erg/cm^2. The 1.0-sec peak photon flux measured starting from T0+0.6 s in the 10-1000 keV band is 3.2 +/- 0.3 ph/s/cm^2. The spectral analysis results presented above are preliminary; final results will be published in the GBM GRB Catalog." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15976 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Montarrenti Observatory optical upper limit DATE: 14/03/12 22:20:45 GMT FROM: Simone Leonini at Monarrenti Obs S. Leonini, P. Rosi, M. Conti, G. Guerrini and L.M. Tinjaca Ramirez (Montarrenti Observatory, Siena, Italy) report: We observed the field of GRB140311A (Swift trigger 591390, Racusin et al., GCN Circ. 15944) with the automatic 0.53m RC telescope + U47 detector at Montarrenti Observatory (Siena, Italy, IAU code C88). The observations were started at 2014-03-12 00:20:19 UT (approximately 3 hours post-burst) stacking 5 unfiltered CCD exposures of 60s each. We have not found optical transient within the error-box given by Swift. Mag. upper limit R = 20.02+/-0.16 Magnitudes were obtained using Astrometrica software using USNO-B1 catalogue and are not corrected for galactic extinction. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15977 SUBJECT: GRB 140311C: Fermi GBM Detection DATE: 14/03/12 22:28:45 GMT FROM: Matthew Stanbro at UAH/Fermi M. Stanbro (UAH) reports on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team: "At 14:49:13.10 UT on 11 March 2014, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor triggered and located GRB 140311C (trigger 416242156/140311618). iPTF reported an optical counterpart candidate for this source (L.P. Singer et al. 2014, GCN 15971). The GBM on-ground location, using the Fermi GBM trigger data, is RA = 183.7 , DEC = +62.81 (J2000 degrees, equivalent to 12h 14m, 62d 48'), with an uncertainty of 3 degrees (radius, 1-sigma containment, statistical only; there is additionally a systematic error which is currently estimated to be 2 to 3 degrees). The angle to the Fermi LAT boresight is 53 deg. The GBM light curve consists of single peak with a duration (T90) of 14 s (50-300 keV). The time-averaged spectrum from T0-2 s to T0+12 s is well fit by a Band function parameterized as Epeak = 56 +/- 6 keV, alpha = -0.9 +/- 0.16 and beta = -2.4 +/- 0.12. The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is (4.6 +/- 0.2)E-06 erg/cm^2. The 1.0-sec peak photon flux measured starting from T0+0.3 s in the 10-1000 keV band is 10.7 +/- 0.4 ph/s/cm^2. The spectral analysis results presented above are preliminary; final results will be published in the GBM GRB Catalog." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15978 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: RATIR Optical and NIR Detection DATE: 14/03/13 00:11:31 GMT FROM: Owen Littlejohns at Az State U Owen Littlejohns (ASU), Nat Butler (ASU), Alan M. Watson (UNAM), Alexander Kutyrev (GSFC), William H. Lee (UNAM), Michael G. Richer (UNAM), Chris Klein (UCB), Ori Fox (UCB), J. Xavier Prochaska (UCSC), Josh Bloom (UCB), Antonino Cucchiara (ORAU/GSFC), Eleonora Troja (GSFC), Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (UCSC), José A. de Diego (UNAM), Leonid Georgiev (UNAM), Jesús González (UNAM), Carlos Román-Zúñiga (UNAM), Neil Gehrels (GSFC), and Harvey Moseley (GSFC) report: We observed the field of GRB 140311A (Racusin, et al., GCN 15944) with the Reionization and Transients Infrared Camera (RATIR; www.ratir.org) on the 1.5m Harold Johnson Telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on Sierra San Pedro Mártir from 2014/03 12.24 to 2014/03 12.36 UTC (8.75 to 11.51 hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 2.10 hours exposure in the r and i bands and 0.89 hours exposure in the Z and Y bands. For a source within the Swift-XRT error circle (Evans, et al., GCN 15959), in comparison with the SDSS DR9 and 2MASS, we obtain the following detections: r 22.33 +/- 0.13 i 21.56 +/- 0.08 Z 20.58 +/- 0.08 Y 20.09 +/- 0.08 These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic extinction in the direction of the GRB. The source has faded in comparison to observations from other facilities (D'Avanzo et, al., GCN 15953), requiring a power-law with a temporal decay index of alpha = -0.83. We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro Mártir. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15979 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 14/03/13 03:07:06 GMT FROM: Jay R. Cummings at NASA/GSFC/Swift A. Y. Lien (NASA/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), J. R. Cummings (looking), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (AGU), M. Stamatikos (OSU), J. Tueller (GSFC), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-0 to T+3 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 140311B (trigger #591392) (Racusin, et al., GCN Circ. 15945). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 252.333, +52.733 deg which is RA(J2000) = 16h 49m 20.0s Dec(J2000) = +52d 44' 00" with an uncertainty of 1.2 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 89%. This trigger followed that of GRB 140311A by only about 9 minutes, which led to a complication in recording the photon-event data. Only 3 seconds of photon-event data was recorded, so no mask-weighted lightcurve is available. T90 (15-350 keV) is estimated to be 70 +- 10 sec. The burst had multiple peaks. Peak emission occurred about 15 seconds after the trigger time. The time-averaged spectrum for the limited range of data available (about 5% of T90) from T+0 to T+3 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 1.12 +- 0.15 (90% confidence). Because of the lack of event data, the fluence is not available. Based on an eye-ball estimate comparing the non-maskweighted lightcurve to those of other bursts with a similar partial coding, the fluence in the 15-150 keV band was on the order of several times 10^-6 ergs/cm^2 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15980 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: further NOT observations DATE: 14/03/13 10:30:24 GMT FROM: Daniele Malesani at Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Inst D. Malesani (DARK/NBI), P. D'Avanzo (INAF/Brera), Y. F. Martinez Osorio (NOT and Univ. Uppsala), report on behalf of the CIBO collaboration: We observed the optical afterglow of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al., GCN 15944; Xu et al., GCN 15947) with the Nordic Optical Telescope equipped with ALFOSC. A total exposure of 24 min was secured in the SDSS i band. At a mean epoch of March 13.043 UT (1.16 days after the GRB), the optical counterpart is well detected with an AB magnitude i = 22.45 +- 0.08, calibrated to several nearby SDSS stars. The position of the afterglow is (J2000): RA = 13:57:13.29 Dec = +00:38:31.7 referenced to the USNO-B1 catalog (0.3" error). Compared to the i-band value reported by Littlejohns et al. (GCN 15978), our measurement implies a decay index alpha = 0.81 +- 0.10 (Fnu propto nu^-alpha), consistent with the value reported by these authors. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15981 SUBJECT: GRB 140311C: MASTER before, during and after trigger optical observations DATE: 14/03/13 15:55:07 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, E.Sinyakov Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk K.Ivanov, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk Irkutsk State University E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, M. Pruzhinskaya, D.Denisenko, V.Kornilov, N.Tyurina, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov, V.V.Chazov, D.Kuvshinov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnih, A. Popov Ural Federal University, Kourovka Hugo Levato and Carlos Saffe Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE) Claudio Mallamaci, Carlos Lopez and Federico Podest Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) MASTER II robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in Blagoveschensk was pointed to the GRB140311C (M. Stanbro, GCN15977) 14 sec after notice time and 29 sec after trigger time at 2014-03-11 14:49:42.721 UT . On our first (10s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within FERMI error-box (ra=12 47 02 dec=+58 49 46 FOV=2x4 square degrees). The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 16.3 mag MASTER II robotic telescope located in Tunka was pointed to the GRB140311C (M. Stanbro,GCN15977) 35 sec after trigger time at 2014-03-11 14:49:48.874 UT. On our first (10s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within FERMI error-box (ra=12 47 02 dec=+58 49 46 FOV=2x4 square degrees). The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 16.0 mag. We have done survey of the large area around initial error box up to ~18 unfiletred magnitude which was begun in 15 minutes after GRB. The GBM error box (M. Stanbro, GCN15977) completely observed by 4-th Very Wide Field Cameras (FOV = 4x380 square degrees) before, during and after GRB without time gap up to 11 unfiltered magnitude limit on each 5 sec image. The reduction is continued now. The IPN is very desirable. The covarege map is available at http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/GRB/GRB140311C_map.png . The elliptical region is the Fermi GBM 1 sigma+3 degrees systematic error box. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15982 SUBJECT: GRB 140311C: Swift-XRT and UVOT observations DATE: 14/03/13 18:05:25 GMT FROM: Valerio D'Elia at ASDC V. D'Elia (ASDC), L.M.Z. Hagen (PSU), L. Izzo (URoma/ICRA), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), S. Holland (STScI) report on behalf of the Swift team: We report on Swift observations of the field of the GBM discovered GRB140311C burst (Stanbro, GCN Circ 15977), for which a possible optical counterpart was reported by iPTF (Singer et al., GCN Circ 15971). XRT began observing the field on 2014-03-12 at 23:43:48 UT, i.e.,  118 ks after the trigger, for a total of 2.7ks. No source is detected at the iPTF coordinates, nor in the whole XRT field of view. The 3-sigma upper limit on the count rate is 5E-03 cts/s. The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 140311C 118480 s after the trigger. No optical afterglow consistent with the iPTF position (Singer et al., GCN Circ. 15971) is detected in the initial UVOT exposure. The preliminary 3-sigma upper limit using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the initial exposures are: Filter         T_start(s)   T_stop(s)      Exp(s)         Mag u               118480       125414         2916        >21.43 The magnitude in the table is not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.01 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998).  We note that the photometry may be affected by a nearby bright foreground star. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15983 SUBJECT: GRB 140311C: MASTER optical observations DATE: 14/03/14 15:01:38 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, M. Pruzhinskaya, D.Denisenko, V.Kornilov, N.Tyurina, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov, V.V.Chazov, D.Kuvshinov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, E.Sinyakov Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk K.Ivanov, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk Irkutsk State University A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnih, A. Popov Ural Federal University, Kourovka Hugo Levato and Carlos Saffe Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE) Claudio Mallamaci, Carlos Lopez and Federico Podest Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) As previously reported (Yurkov et. al. GCN 15981) MASTER VWF robotic very wide field cameras (FOV=2x384 square degrees, D=72mm, f/1.2, 1 pix = 22 arcsec) installed on MASTER-II robotic telescope in Tunka covered full FERMI GBM error-box (M. Stanbro, GCN15977) before, during and after GRB. We haven`t found credible optical transient with 3-sigma upper limit 10.5m. We also didn't find credible optical counterpart on the survey (Yurkov et. al. GCN 15981) of part of error box carried out directly after GRB on MASTER-II robotic telescope up to 18 mag. The synchronous move of FERMI GBM error-box available here http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/GRB/GRB140311C_FERMI.gif http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/GRB/GRB140311C_diff.gif The circle on move is the Fermi GBM 1 sigma+3 degrees systematic error box. Also very wide field cameras covered a place of possible iPTF counterpart (Singer et. al. GCN 15971). Unfortunately the bright star is projected into OT place. We didn't find a noticeable brightening of this star. The syncronous move from very wide field cameras of possible iPTF counterpart place available here http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/GRB/GRB140311C_IPTF.gif This place was not covered on MASTER-II survey. The Prompt Optical to Gamma Fluence Ratio during this burst is: F_opt/F_gamma <~ 1 : 820. The covarege map is available at http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/GRB/GRB140311C_map1.png . The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15985 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: VLA Detection DATE: 14/03/16 03:24:52 GMT FROM: Tanmoy Laskar at Harvard U T. Laskar, A. Zauderer, and E. Berger (Harvard) report: "We observed the position of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al; GCN 15944) with the VLA beginning on 2014 March 14.35 UT (2.48 days after the burst). At a mean frequency of 21.8 GHz, we detect a radio source with a preliminary flux density of ~ 0.25 mJy at RA = 13:57:13.2763 +/- 0.0002 Dec = 00:38:31.423 +/- 0.003 consistent with the enhanced Swft/XRT position (Evans et al.; GCN 15959) and the optical position (Xu et al.; GCN 15947). Follow-up observations are planned." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15994 SUBJECT: GRB 140311A: Mondy optical limits DATE: 14/03/18 20:40:18 GMT FROM: Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow A. Volnova (IKI), E. Klunko (ISTP), I. Korobtsev (ISTP), M. Eselevich (ISTP), A. Pozanenko (IKI) report on behalf of larger GRB follow-up collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 140311A (Racusin et al., GCN 15944) with AZT-33IK telescope of Mondy observatory on Mar. 12 and Mar. 13. Within enhanced Swift-XRT error circle (Evans et al., GCN 15959) we do not detect the optical afterglow (Xu et al., GCN 15947; Klotz et al., GCN 15952). Details of the photometry is following: date UT start t-T0 Exp. Filter UpperLimit (3sigma) (mid, days) (s) 2014-03-12 17:35:08 0.87145 25x120 R 21.4 2014-03-13 20:29:49 2.01082 51x120 R 21.6 The photometry is based on reference star SDSS-DR9, (R mag, transformation by Lupton 2005): N SDSS_id R(Lupton) err J135713.39+003942.0 18.447 0.015 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15995 SUBJECT: GRB 140311B: Mondy optical limit DATE: 14/03/18 20:45:27 GMT FROM: Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow A.Volnova (IKI), E. Klunko (ISTP), I. Korobtsev (ISTP), M. Eselevich (ISTP), A. Pozanenko (IKI) report on behalf of larger GRB follow-up collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 140311B (Racusin et al., GCN 15945) with AZT-33IK telescope of Mondy observatory starting on Mar. 12 (UT) 20:21:16. Within enhanced Swift-XRT eror circle (Evans et al., GCN 15958) we do not detect the optical afterglow (Xu et al., GCN 15949). Details of the photometry is following: date UT start t-T0 Exp. Filter UpperLimit (3sigma) (mid, days) (s) 2014-03-12 20:21:16 0.98389 30x120 R 20.2 The photometry is based on reference star SDSS-DR9, (R mag, transformation by Lupton 2005): N SDSS_id R(Lupton) err J164910.91+524333.6 17.449 0.009