//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18728 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Identification of a GW CBC Candidate DATE: 15/12/27 17:39:45 GMT FROM: Leo Singer at NASA/GSFC The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo report: The online gstlal CBC analysis, which is sensitive to binary coalescence events from systems containing neutron stars and/or black holes, identified candidate G211117 during real-time processing of data from LIGO Hanford Observatory (H1) and LIGO Livingston Observatory (L1) at 2015-12-26 03:38:53.648 UTC (GPS time: 1135136350.648). The candidate was identified by an expanded low-latency pipeline configuration that is sensitive to stellar-mass BNS, NSBH, and BBH mergers. G211117 is an event of interest because its false alarm rate, as determined by the online analysis, passed our stated alert threshold of ~1/month. The event's properties can be found at this URL: https://gracedb.ligo.org/events/G211117 If confirmed as astrophysical, the system contains at least one and most likely two black holes. The candidate was below the threshold for detection by the low-latency un-modeled burst searches. However, manual offline analysis with Coherent WaveBurst (cWB) recovered a candidate with consistent timing and amplitude, designated G211182: https://gracedb.ligo.org/events/G211182 Two sky maps are available at this time and can be retrieved from the GraceDB event pages: * bayestar.fits.gz, an initial localization generated by the BAYESTAR pipeline based on the CBC analysis about 2 minutes after the event. The probability is concentrated in two long, thin arcs. The 50% credible region spans about 430 deg2 and the 90% region about 1400 deg2. This is the preferred sky map at this time. * skyprobcc_cwb.fits, generated from the cWB offline analysis about six hours after the event. The area supported by this sky map is qualitatively very similar to and essentially a superset of the BAYESTAR sky map, with a 90% credible area of 2200 deg2. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18729 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: MASTER possible OT detection at the begining of inspection DATE: 15/12/27 23:04:02 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, N.Tyurina, V.Kornilov, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov, O.Gress Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute D.Buckley South African Astronomical Observatory MASTER OT J020906.21+013800.1 - possible OT in PGC Galaxy. MASTER-SAAO auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 02h 09m 06.21s +01d 38m 00.1s on 2015-12-27.85448 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 18.3m (limit 20.0m). The OT is seen in 6 images. There is no minor planet at this place. There is PGC1200980 galaxy (it seems spiral galaxy and distance about 100 Mpc) very close to OT. The OT offset are 4.3E 1.5S arcsec. We have reference image without OT on 2015-06-07.17962 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 18.9m. Spectral observations are required. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/020906.21013800.1.png This circular can be cited. -- Профессор Московского государственного университета им.М.В.Ломоносова Главный редактор Русского переплета http:www.pereplet.ru/avtori/lipunov.html The Principal Investigator of MASTER Global Robotic Net http://observ.pereplet.ru Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University Physics Department, The Head of Space monitoring laboratory of Sternberg Astronomical Institute of Lomonosov MSU //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18730 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: SWASP optical observations DATE: 15/12/27 23:05:46 GMT FROM: Danny Steeghs at U of Warwick/GOTO D.Steeghs, D.Pollacco, D.Galloway, G.Ramsay, V.Dhillon & P.O'Brien on behalf of the GOTO consortium report: Following GCN #18728, the SuperWASP Exoplanet camera on La Palma started imaging the error regions containing G211117/G211182 at 19:17 UT Dec 27 2015. The camera array has already mapped the northern lobe of the reported LIGO/VIRGO skymap 10 times over a 3.5 hr period to a depth of around V~16th. Observations are continuing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18732 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Swift-XRT sources DATE: 15/12/28 12:45:47 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea (PSU), Scott Barthelmy (NASA/GSFC), Dave Burrows (PSU), Sergio Campana (INAF-OAB), Brad Cenko (NASA/GSFC), Neil Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), Paolo Giommi (ASI), Frank Marshall (NASA/GSFC), John Nousek (PSU), Paul O'Brien (U. Leicester), Julian Osborne (U. Leicester), Kim Page (U. Leicester), David Palmer (LANL), Matteo Perri (ASDC), Judy Racusin (NASA/GSFC), Mike Siegel (PSU), Gianpiero Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift team: Swift has performed a series of 24 observations of galaxies (from the GWGC catalogue) within the aLIGO error region for the aLIGO trigger G211117, using the 'bayestar' GW localisation map. The observations currently span from 140 ks to 164 ks after the aLIGO trigger, and cover 2.8 sq degrees on the sky (corrected for overlaps). Further observations are ongoing. We have detected 2 X-ray sources. Each source is assigned a rank of 1-4 which describes how likely it is to be related to the GW trigger, with 1 being the most likely and 4 being the least likely. The ranks are described at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ranks.php. We have found: * 0 sources of rank 1 * 0 sources of rank 2 * 0 sources of rank 3 * 2 sources of rank 4 We assumed a power-law spectrum with NH=3e20 cm^2, and Gamma=1.7 RANK 4 sources ============== These are catalogued X-ray sources, showing no signs of outburst compared to previous observations, so they are not likely to be related to the GW trigger. Source 1: ============= RA: 207.3302 ( = 13h 49m 19.25s) J2000 Dec: -30.3100 ( = -30d 18' 36.0") J2000 Error: +4.1 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.0e+00 +/- 2.4e-01 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 4.4e-11 +/- 1.0e-11 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 1SXPS J134919.2-301834 in the 1SXPS catalogue Separation: 1.5" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 2.6e+00 +/- 2.6e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 1.1e-10 +/- 1.1e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not above the catalogued flux There is no evidence for fading There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. A SIMBAD object `RXC J1349.3-3018' is 2.1" away There are 3 2MASS objects within the source's 3-sigma error radius Source 2: ============= RA: 202.5292 ( = 13h 30m 7.01s) J2000 Dec: -21.6998 ( = -21d 41' 59.3") J2000 Error: +5.2 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 6.2e-02 +/- 1.5e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 2.7e-12 +/- 6.3e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 1RXS J133006.8-214156 in the ROSAT/RASSFSC catalogue Separation: 3.9" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 8.3e-02 +/- 2.4e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 2.3e-12 +/- 6.9e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) So the source is 0.3-sigma above the catalogued flux There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. A SIMBAD object `[RKV2003] QSO J1330-2142 abs 0.3014' is 2.9" away There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius This circular is an official product of the Swift team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18733 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Further Swift-XRT sources DATE: 15/12/28 13:04:39 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea (PSU), Scott Barthelmy (NASA/GSFC), Dave Burrows (PSU), Sergio Campana (INAF-OAB), Brad Cenko (NASA/GSFC), Neil Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), Paolo Giommi (ASI), Frank Marshall (NASA/GSFC), John Nousek (PSU), Paul O'Brien (U. Leicester), Julian Osborne (U. Leicester), Kim Page (U. Leicester), David Palmer (LANL), Matteo Perri (ASDC), Judy Racusin (NASA/GSFC), Mike Siegel (PSU), Gianpiero Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift team: Further Swift observations have been downlinked. The observations currently span from 140 ks to 164 ks after the aLIGO trigger, and cover 2.8 sq degrees on the sky (corrected for overlaps), and are ongoing. Since the last Swift GCN, we have detected 3 extra X-ray sources, these are. Each source is assigned a rank of 1-4 which describes how likely it is to be related to the GW trigger, with 1 being the most likely and 4 being the least likely. The ranks are described at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ranks.php. We have found: * 0 sources of rank 1 * 0 sources of rank 2 * 3 sources of rank 3 * 0 sources of rank 4 We assumed a power-law spectrum with NH=3e20 cm^2, and Gamma=1.7 RANK 3 sources ============== These are uncatalogued X-ray sources, however they are not brighter than previous upper limits, so do not stand out as likely counterparts to the GW trigger. Source 3: ============= RA: 202.5552 ( = 13h 30m 13.25s) J2000 Dec: -20.9046 ( = -20d 54' 16.6") J2000 Error: +5.3 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 9.6e-03 +/- 5.2e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 4.1e-13 +/- 2.2e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) 1SXPS UL: 1.2e-03 ct/sec, (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the 1SXPS 3-sigma limit RASS UL: 5.1e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the RASS 3-sigma limit There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius Source 4: ============= RA: 202.5674 ( = 13h 30m 16.18s) J2000 Dec: -20.9240 ( = -20d 55' 26.4") J2000 Error: +5.5 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.5e-02 +/- 6.5e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 6.6e-13 +/- 2.8e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) 1SXPS UL: 1.2e-03 ct/sec, (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the 1SXPS 3-sigma limit RASS UL: 5.2e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the RASS 3-sigma limit There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius Source 5: ============= RA: 202.3542 ( = 13h 29m 25.01s) J2000 Dec: -21.2270 ( = -21d 13' 37.2") J2000 Error: +5.7 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 2.7e-02 +/- 8.4e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 1.1e-12 +/- 3.6e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 2.5e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the RASS 3-sigma limit There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. This circular is an official product of the Swift team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18734 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: INAF VST-ESO PARANAL observations DATE: 15/12/28 15:21:17 GMT FROM: Enzo Brocato at INAF-OA Roma A.Grado (INAF-OAC), G.Greco (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), E. Brocato (INAF-OAR), M. Branchesi (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), E. Cappellaro (INAF-OAPd), L.Amati (INAF-IASF Bo), L. A. Antonelli, (INAF-OAR), P. Astone (INFN-Roma), S. Campana, S. Covino, P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (INAF-ASDC), F. Getman (INAF-OAC), G. Giuffrida (INAF-ASDC), L. Limatola (INAF-OAC), M. Lisi (INAF-OAR), S. Marinoni, P. Marrese (INAF-ASDC), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), L. Nicastro, E. Palazzi (INAF-IAFS Bo), E. Pian (SNS-Pisa), S. Piranomonte, L. Pulone (INAF-OAR), F. Ricci (Sapienza University), G. Stratta (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB), V. Testa (INAF-OAR), L. Tomasella (INAF-OAPd) on behalf of the INAF Gravitational Astronomy group report: We observed 72 square degree of the skymap of the advanced LIGO and Virgo trigger G211117, with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO-Paranal equipped with OMEGACAM (FOV=1 square degree). The r SDSS filter was used. The observations are divided in 8 regions 3 x 3 square degree each, centered on the following coordinates RA, Dec (J2000): North 02:29:55.200 +16:13:12.00 02:38:02.208 +19:13:12.00 02:46:35.712 +22:12:33.84 02:59:40.800 +25:13:12.00 03:06:55.128 +28:13:12.00 03:18:23.712 +31:13:12.00 South 13:45:53.208 -26:48:00.00 13:39:47.208 -23:48:00.00 The first group of observations on the North area started at 2015-12-28T01:14:02.794 UT and finished at 2015-12-28T04:00:48.959 UT, while the observations in the South area started at 2015-12-28T07:51:18.143 UT and finished at 2015-12-28T08:55:27.653 UT. The image analysis is ongoing. Further observations of these fields are planned. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18735 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Pan-STARRS1 observations 2015-12-28 DATE: 15/12/28 16:05:20 GMT FROM: S. J. Smartt at Queens U Belfast K. C. Chambers, A. Schulz (IfA, University of Hawaii), D. Young, K. Smith, S. Smartt (Queen’s University Belfast), M. Coughlin (Harvard), L. Denneau, H. Flewelling, A. Heinze, M. E. Huber, E. A. Magnier, N. Primak, A. Rest (STScI), A. Sherstyuk (IfA), B. Stalder (IfA), C. W. Stubbs (Harvard) J. Tonry, C. Waters (IfA), D. Wright, (QUB) We report the observations of northern arc of the skymap defined by the BAYESTAR pipeline as reported GCN18728 with the Pan-STARRS1 telescope (2.9 degree diameter FOV). We have mapped the arc from the southern point of RA=34.1174 DEC=10.129 through to the northern tip at RA=86.394 DEC=53.6, corresponding to most of the 30% enclosed region in the northern arc of the BAYESTAR map. Observations were taken in the PS1 i-band (Tonry et al. 2012, ApJ 750, 99) and at each pointing position a dithered sequence of 4 x 45 sec was taken, which will be combined as a single epoch stack. These dithered sequences were repeated, with overlaps, to map the 30% region contiguously. A total of 371 individual 45 sec images were taken. Data taking began at 2015-12-28 05:07:49 and finished 2015-12-28 13:33:07 (UTC). The images are currently being differenced with respect to the Pan-STARRS 3Pi all sky i-band image (see Magnier et al. 2013, ApJS 205, 20 ; Huber et al. 2015, ATel 7153) to detect transient objects. Further observations of the region are planned as weather allows. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18737 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: INTEGRAL was inactive at the time of the event DATE: 15/12/28 17:36:51 GMT FROM: Volodymyr Savchenko at APC,Paris V. Savchenko (APC, Paris, France), S. Mereghetti (IASF-Mi, Italy), C. Ferrigno, E. Bozzo (ISDC, University of Geneva, CH) , E. Kuulkers (ESAC/ESA, Madrid, Spain), on behalf of a larger collaboration The INTEGRAL spacecraft has a highly elliptical orbit and the instruments are switched off around the perigee passage, every 2.6 days, to prevent radiation induced damages. Unfortunately, at the time of the LIGO/Virgo trigger G211117 (2015-12-26 03:38:53 UTC) the spacecraft was close to the perigee between the orbits number 1625 and 1626. The data from the anti-coincidence monitor are not available from 2015-12-25 20:57 to 2015-12-26 07:46 UTC. Yet, the narrow-field hard X-ray instruments of INTEGRAL were pointing to the Cygnus region when the operations resumed at 2015-12-26 07:59 (about 4.5 hours after the trigger), too far from the trigger high probability zones to yield any meaningful limit on possible long-lasting electromagnetic counterparts of the gravitational wave trigger. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18738 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: MASTER Observations and Inspection + OT DATE: 15/12/28 19:05:25 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, N.Tyurina, V.Kornilov, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute D.Buckley, S. Potter, M. Kotze South African Astronomical Observatory R. Rebolo, M. Serra-Ricart, G. Israelian, N.Lodiu The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias A. Tlatov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory O. Gress, K. Ivanov, N.M. Budnev Irkutsk State University V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, A.Gabovich Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk MASTER-IAC robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru, 2x4 square degrees) located in IAC was pointed to the LIGO/Virgo G211117 event (Possible Gravitational Wave Burst) 7975 sec after notice time and 1 days 58376 sec after trigger time at 2015-12-27 19:51:49 UT. Our first (180s exposure) set we have 5-sigma upper limit has been about 20.0 mag (unfiltered). MASTER-SAAO robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in SAAO was pointed to the LIGO/Virgo G211117 event 19726 sec after notice time and 1 days 70127 sec after trigger time at 2015-12-27 23:07:40 UT. On our first (180s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within LIGO error-box (ra=02 31 59 dec=+07 59 59 r=0.100000). The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 20.2mag (unfiltered). The message may be cited. MASTER-Kislovodsk robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in SAAO was pointed to the LIGO/Virgo G211117 event 9608 sec after notice time and 1 days 60009 sec after trigger time at 2015-12-27 20:19:02 UT. On our first (180s exposure) set we have 5-sigma upper about 15.3mag (unfiltered). The full Coverage map starting after trigger (47.5 % total probability - north + south segment) is available here: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/G211117_MASTER_NET.png This map includes both independently MASTER survey of the alert area on 26th after , and Inspect images after the notice time (2015-12-27 17:38) Four MASTER VWF (very wide field FOV = 2 x 386 sq. degree, d=82 mm f/1.2) cameras at Kislovodsk and Canary Island cover 4.3 % of total probability field synchronously with Ligo trigger at 2015-12-26 03:38:53 UTC. I.e we have a set of 5 seconds images before, during and after trigger without time gaps. The 3 sigma upper limit is about 11 mag at a single (5 seconds) image and 12 mag at a coadd of 12 images with total exposure 60 sec. Coverage map available here: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/G211117_WF.png We detected second OT during inspection. MASTER OT J124246.31+111448.6 - possible QSO in active state not relaited with gravitational wave event. MASTER-IAC auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 12h 42m 46.31s +11d 14m 48.6s on 2015-12-28.28271 UT (error box 1 arcsec). The OT unfiltered magnitude is 18.9m (limit 19.5m). The OT is seen in 3 images. There is no minor planet at this place. We have reference image without OT on 2015-12-28.25404 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 20.0 m. There is possible QSO SDSS 124246.25+111449.0 inside our error box. We have long story of the avout 2 magnitude variability this sources in Tunka nad Kislovodsk MASTERs DataBase. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/124246.31111448.6.png The reduction is continuated. This circular is an official product of the MASTER team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18740 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Optical follow-up with Kanata telescope DATE: 15/12/29 01:05:29 GMT FROM: Michitoshi Yoshida at J-GEM R. Itoh, Y. Utsumi, T. Nakaoka, M. Kawabata, M. Yoshida (HASC, Hiroshima Univ.) on behalf of J-GEM collaboration We observed nearby galaxies listed in GWGC in the error area of the G211117 with HOWPol (15 arcmin FOV optical imager) attached to the 1.5m Kanata telescope on 2015-12-27 (UTC). We performed R and I bands imaging observations. No optical transient brighter the upper limits of the observed fields was detected in both bands. The observed objects and 3-sigma upper limits are listed below. #Time(UT) exposure[sec] ra[deg.] width[arcrmin] dec[deg.] #width[arcmin] R-Upperlimit(3-sigma) I-Upperlimit(3-sigma) Object #----------------------------------------------------------------- 2015-12-27T18:10:18 90.0 57.7208 10 39.7889 10 19.2 19.2 PGC097021 2015-12-27T18:30:56 90.0 49.2417 10 31.5672 10 17.6 17.7 UGC02627 2015-12-27T18:38:03 90.0 52.8250 10 35.4661 10 18.2 17.9 UGC02770 2015-12-27T18:48:39 90.0 53.3042 10 36.1842 10 18.3 18.0 UGC02780 2015-12-27T18:59:12 90.0 53.6958 10 36.2097 10 18.6 18.6 UGC02788 2015-12-27T19:09:49 90.0 55.3833 10 37.2256 10 17.8 18.2 UGC02817 2015-12-27T19:20:21 90.0 57.0375 10 37.4569 10 17.8 17.7 PGC165376 2015-12-27T19:31:01 90.0 58.2333 10 40.1125 10 18.8 18.9 PGC097023 2015-12-27T19:42:15 90.0 207.9833 10 -29.7647 10 18.2 18.2 PGC725406 2015-12-27T19:57:26 90.0 208.1917 10 -29.9297 10 18.4 18.4 ESO445-065 2015-12-27T20:07:55 90.0 208.4333 10 -30.5281 10 18.5 18.6 PGC089791 2015-12-27T20:18:23 90.0 208.5958 10 -30.3797 10 18.4 18.4 PGC089797 2015-12-27T20:29:00 90.0 208.3292 10 -30.6975 10 18.4 18.5 PGC714066 2015-12-27T20:39:39 90.0 208.4833 10 -30.9794 10 18.7 18.7 PGC089792 2015-12-27T20:50:13 90.0 208.5875 10 -31.1817 10 19.0 18.8 PGC184225 2015-12-27T21:00:47 90.0 208.6417 10 -31.4703 10 18.6 18.7 PGC089799 2015-12-27T21:11:22 90.0 209.6125 10 -31.7761 10 18.2 17.7 ESO445-085 2015-12-27T21:21:57 90.0 209.1333 10 -32.4886 10 16.5 -- PGC690995 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18741 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Fermi GBM Observations DATE: 15/12/29 01:26:08 GMT FROM: E. Burns at U of Alabama/Huntsville Eric Burns (UAH), Lindy Blackburn (CfA), Michael S. Briggs (UAH), Jordan Camp (NASA/GSFC), Nelson Christensen (Carleton College), Valerie Connaughton(USRA), Tito Dal Canton (MPG), Adam Goldstein (NASA/MSFC), Peter Jenke (UAH), Tyson Littenberg (USRA/UAH), Judith Racusin (NASA/GSFC), Peter Shawhan (UMD), Leo Singer (NASA/GSFC), John Veitch (Birmingham), Binbin Zhang (UAH) The high probability northern arc of the Advanced LIGO skymap was mostly occulted by the Earth. The entire high probability southern arc was observed by Fermi GBM during the GW event. GBM was observing 45% of the cWB map probability. A seeded search of the GBM Time-Tagged Event data between 8 keV and 40 MeV from 30 s before to 30 s after the CBC candidate event revealed no significant emission on search timescales in factors of 2 from 64 ms to 2.048 s. Additional blind searches of the GBM NaI detector data over several thousands of seconds before and after the CBC candidate also find no significant gamma-ray signal. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18742 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Optical NIR observation with Kanata telescope DATE: 15/12/29 01:56:22 GMT FROM: Michitoshi Yoshida at J-GEM R. Itoh, Y. Kanda, M. Yoshida, Y. Utsumi, K. S. Kawabata, M. Uemura, T. Nakaoka, M. Kawabata (HASC, Hiroshima Univ.), M. Tanaka (NAOJ) on behalf of J-GEM collaboration We observed nearby galaxies listed in GWGC in the error area of the G211117 with HONIR (7 arcmin FOV optical near-infrared 2 color simultaneous imager & spectrograph) attached to the 1.5m Kanata telescope on 2015-12-28 (UTC). We performed I and J bands imaging observations. We found a transient point source in the field of UGC 1410 at 2015-12-28 13:42 (UTC). The object was clearly detected both in I and J. The position and I band magnitude of this object are RA 01:56:17.6 DEC +04:33:08 17.3 $B!^(B 0.2 (I). The position is consistent with that of the SDSS J015617.19+043307.7 whose i band magnitude is 22.12 (SDSS DR10). The OT we found is about 100 times brighter than this SDSS object. Spectroscopic follow-up is encouraged. The observed galaxies and the 3-sigma I-band limiting magnitudes are listed below. #Time(UT) exposure ra[deg.] width[arcrmin] dec[deg.] width[arcmin] #I-Upperlimit(3-sigma) Object #----------------------------------------------------------------- 2015-12-28T09:00:44 120.0 31.1792 7 8.5431 7 19.4 UGC01572 2015-12-28T09:14:04 120.0 29.5250 7 5.7689 7 20.7 PGC1288823 2015-12-28T09:27:33 120.0 34.4042 7 12.5089 7 -- IC1790 2015-12-28T09:41:06 120.0 35.3792 7 14.1986 7 19.0 UGC01817 2015-12-28T09:55:28 120.0 32.2758 7 1.6333 7 19.8 J020905.98+013800.5 2015-12-28T10:35:37 120.0 38.7912 7 20.8525 7 20.6 UGC02064 2015-12-28T10:49:12 120.0 26.9542 7 0.3039 7 -- PGC1146688 2015-12-28T11:02:32 120.0 26.7250 7 0.6139 7 -- PGC1138988 2015-12-28T11:28:11 120.0 28.6708 7 0.6114 7 -- PGC1170628 2015-12-28T11:42:03 120.0 45.5333 7 29.1081 7 20.7 UGC02497 2015-12-28T11:55:44 120.0 27.8500 7 1.6961 7 19.8 PGC1202981 2015-12-28T12:09:06 120.0 29.5167 7 2.0436 7 -- [RGK2003]J015804.70+020237.4 2015-12-28T12:22:23 120.0 29.4083 7 2.4231 7 20.8 PGC007383 2015-12-28T12:35:42 120.0 29.0542 7 3.4886 7 19.4 PGC007248 2015-12-28T12:49:00 120.0 29.6417 7 3.2569 7 20.1 UGC01454 2015-12-28T13:02:16 120.0 29.5083 7 3.3692 7 17.6 UGC01446 2015-12-28T13:15:30 120.0 29.5042 7 3.4539 7 19.9 PGC007442 2015-12-28T13:28:45 120.0 29.0667 7 3.7617 7 19.9 IC0174 2015-12-28T13:42:06 120.0 29.0667 7 4.6469 7 21.0 UGC01410 2015-12-28T14:00:13 120.0 29.4958 7 4.3950 7 19.9 UGC01444 2015-12-28T14:13:38 120.0 29.2833 7 4.5644 7 20.9 PGC007331 2015-12-28T14:26:52 120.0 29.0250 7 4.9969 7 20.6 PGC007225 2015-12-28T14:40:08 120.0 29.1375 7 5.2150 7 19.2 PGC007276 2015-12-28T14:53:20 120.0 29.7083 7 5.3597 7 17.3 PGC007476 2015-12-28T15:06:35 120.0 29.7208 7 5.4175 7 19.8 PGC007477 2015-12-28T15:19:58 120.0 30.8958 7 4.7856 7 17.3 UGC01553 2015-12-28T15:50:04 120.0 38.1708 7 15.7192 7 20.7 PGC089526 2015-12-28T16:03:20 120.0 40.2500 7 17.4311 7 19.1 UGC02168 2015-12-28T16:16:55 120.0 38.2208 7 19.2581 7 -- PGC009699 2015-12-28T16:30:12 120.0 39.7667 7 18.3939 7 17.7 PGC010042 2015-12-28T16:43:30 120.0 42.3125 7 21.3047 7 --- PGC089527 2015-12-28T16:56:49 120.0 43.8000 7 24.6347 7 19.0 PGC011015 2015-12-28T17:10:05 120.0 45.5167 7 25.7933 7 17.8 PGC090653 2015-12-28T17:23:33 120.0 52.8250 7 35.4661 7 19.6 UGC02770 2015-12-28T17:36:47 120.0 53.2083 7 36.2186 7 19.5 UGC02778 2015-12-28T17:50:10 120.0 53.3042 7 36.1842 7 17.7 UGC02780 2015-12-28T18:03:31 120.0 55.3833 7 37.2256 7 17.7 UGC02817 2015-12-28T18:16:48 120.0 56.7417 7 38.6342 7 18.4 UGC02857 2015-12-28T18:30:12 120.0 57.7208 7 39.7889 7 18.1 PGC097021 2015-12-28T19:01:50 120.0 70.3417 7 45.8281 7 18.6 PGC3094748 2015-12-28T19:15:12 120.0 68.9917 7 47.7172 7 19.3 PGC3094741 2015-12-28T19:28:31 120.0 69.5625 7 48.6942 7 19.3 PGC015704 2015-12-28T19:41:56 120.0 76.5833 7 50.8417 7 20.9 PGC097073 2015-12-28T19:55:20 120.0 84.9333 7 52.6019 7 19.8 PGC2816495 2015-12-28T20:08:46 120.0 84.4417 7 54.1625 7 17.3 PGC090015 2015-12-28T20:22:13 120.0 92.7792 7 55.3381 7 -- PGC090750 2015-12-28T20:35:34 120.0 103.2917 7 57.1778 7 17.9 UGC03574 2015-12-28T20:48:56 120.0 105.9958 7 56.4861 7 20.1 PGC020086 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18744 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: DESGW program observations with DECam DATE: 15/12/29 04:16:09 GMT FROM: M. Soares-Santos at Fermi Lab M. Soares-Santos (Fermilab), A. Rest (STSCI), D. James (CTIO/NOAO), D. J. Brout (UPenn), J. Annis (Fermilab), E. Berger (Harvard), H.-Y. Chen (UChicago), P. Cowperthwaite (Harvard), H. T. Diehl (Fermilab), B. Farr (UChicago), D. A. Finley (Fermilab), J. Frieman (Fermilab/UChicago), R. Gruendl (NCSA), D. Holz (UChicago), R. Kessler (UChicago), K. Herner (Fermilab), E. Neilsen (Fermilab), M. Sako (UPenn), B. Yanny (Fermilab) On behalf of the DESGW team: We report on observations done with the Dark Energy camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO on the night of 2015-12-27 in response to the LVC trigger G211117/G211182. These observations are part of a plan to observe about 90 sq-deg of the region of interest (the subregion that is visible from CTIO) and cover a total of about 10% of the total LVC probability. DECam has a 3 sq-deg field of view, and typically reaches i,z = 23rd limiting magnitudes for 90 sec exposure times. If an optical counterpart of magnitude ~23 or brighter, is present within the imaged area, our observing strategy allows us to achieve ~90% detection probability. Coordinates observed in the first night are given below. More observations are planned for upcoming nights. Analysis is underway. ra dec 29.932371 2.0517 25.168446 -3.0207 26.75595 -2.0063 37.708542 13.20445 34.568587 9.14855 23.617796 -6.0642 -- Marcelle Soares-Santos http://home.fnal.gov/~marcelle/ http://www.darkenergysurvey.org/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18748 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Further Swift-XRT sources DATE: 15/12/29 10:02:14 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea (PSU), Scott Barthelmy (NASA/GSFC), Dave Burrows (PSU), Sergio Campana (INAF-OAB), Brad Cenko (NASA/GSFC), Neil Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), Paolo Giommi (ASI), Frank Marshall (NASA/GSFC), John Nousek (PSU), Paul O'Brien (U. Leicester), Julian Osborne (U. Leicester), David Palmer (LANL), Matteo Perri (ASDC), Judy Racusin (NASA/GSFC), Mike Siegel (PSU), Gianpiero Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift team: Swift has performed a series of 75 observations of galaxies (from the GWGC catalogue) within the aLIGO error region for the aLIGO trigger G211117, using the 'bayestar' GW localisation map. The observations currently span from 140 ks to 217 ks after the aLIGO trigger, and cover 8.4 sq degrees on the sky (corrected for overlaps). Since the last Swift GCN, we have detected a 9 X-ray sources, these are either new detections, or have been given a higher 'rank' than in the last circular. Each source is assigned a rank of 1-4 which describes how likely it is to be related to the GW trigger, with 1 being the most likely and 4 being the least likely. The ranks are described at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ranks.php. We have found: * 0 sources of rank 1 * 0 sources of rank 2 * 4 sources of rank 3 * 5 sources of rank 4 We assumed a power-law spectrum with NH=3e20 cm^2, and Gamma=1.7 In addition to these sources a number of objects were detected and reported in COUNTERPART notices, which are in fact artefacts around extended sources, and are not point source detections. These spurious sources are not reported below. RANK 3 sources ============== These are uncatalogued X-ray sources, however they are not brighter than previous upper limits, so do not stand out as likely counterparts to the GW trigger. Source 13: ============= RA: 187.6968 ( = 12h 30m 47.23s) J2000 Dec: +12.3389 ( = +12d 20' 20.0") J2000 Error: +6.4 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.5e-01 +/- 5.4e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 6.3e-12 +/- 2.3e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 2.5e+00 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the RASS 3-sigma limit There is no evidence for fading There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. Source 24: ============= RA: 188.0297 ( = 12h 32m 7.13s) J2000 Dec: +11.8560 ( = +11d 51' 21.6") J2000 Error: +7.5 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.6e-02 +/- 6.1e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 6.7e-13 +/- 2.6e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 5.5e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the RASS 3-sigma limit There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. Source 27: ============= RA: 187.9278 ( = 12h 31m 42.67s) J2000 Dec: +12.3292 ( = +12d 19' 45.1") J2000 Error: +11.7 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.8e-02 +/- 1.0e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 7.7e-13 +/- 4.4e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 2.6e-01 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the RASS 3-sigma limit There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. Source 44: ============= RA: 187.8733 ( = 12h 31m 29.59s) J2000 Dec: +11.8772 ( = +11d 52' 37.9") J2000 Error: +6.7 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.4e-02 +/- 6.2e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 5.9e-13 +/- 2.6e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 8.8e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the RASS 3-sigma limit There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. RANK 4 sources ============== These are catalogued X-ray sources, showing no signs of outburst compared to previous observations, so they are not likely to be related to the GW trigger. Source 6: ============= RA: 207.1852 ( = 13h 48m 44.45s) J2000 Dec: -30.4960 ( = -30d 29' 45.6") J2000 Error: +6.0 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 5.1e-02 +/- 1.2e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 2.2e-12 +/- 5.2e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: XMMSL1 J134844.6-302948 in the XMM-NEWTON/XMMSLEWCLN catalogue Separation: 2.7" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 1.4e+00 +/- 3.7e-01 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 1.5e-11 +/- 3.9e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the catalogued flux The source may be fading, at the 0.3-sigma level. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. A SIMBAD object `2XMM J134844.7-302943' is 3.7" away There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius Source 7: ============= RA: 207.2700 ( = 13h 49m 4.80s) J2000 Dec: -30.2955 ( = -30d 17' 43.8") J2000 Error: +7.3 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 4.7e-02 +/- 1.2e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 2.0e-12 +/- 5.3e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: XMMSL1 J134904.4-301745 in the XMM-NEWTON/XMMSLEWCLN catalogue Separation: 3.6" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 1.6e+00 +/- 4.9e-01 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 1.7e-11 +/- 5.2e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the catalogued flux There is no evidence for fading There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. A SIMBAD object `[RP98d] P6' is 6.3" away There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius Source 16: ============= RA: 187.6792 ( = 12h 30m 43.01s) J2000 Dec: +12.3882 ( = +12d 23' 17.5") J2000 Error: +5.9 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 4.3e+00 +/- 1.2e+00 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 1.8e-10 +/- 5.2e-11 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 2RXP J123044.7+122331 in the ROSAT/ROSPSPC catalogue Separation: 28.9" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 0.0e+00 +/- 0.0e+00 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 0.0e+00 +/- 0.0e+00 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the catalogued flux The source may be fading, at the 0.7-sigma level. There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. A SIMBAD object `[SFH81] 1157' is 7.9" away Source 23: ============= RA: 187.8039 ( = 12h 31m 12.94s) J2000 Dec: +12.0537 ( = +12d 03' 13.3") J2000 Error: +6.5 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 7.0e-02 +/- 2.5e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 3.0e-12 +/- 1.1e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 3XMM J123113.1+120307 in the XMM-NEWTON/XMMSSC catalogue Separation: 6.8" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 5.4e-01 +/- 5.9e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 5.7e-12 +/- 6.2e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the catalogued flux There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. A SIMBAD object `2MASX J12311311+1203075' is 6.7" away There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius Source 32: ============= RA: 187.7473 ( = 12h 30m 59.35s) J2000 Dec: +12.1925 ( = +12d 11' 33.0") J2000 Error: +5.6 (radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: -1.0e+00 +/- -1.0e+00 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: -4.3e-11 +/- -4.3e-11 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 3XMM J123059.4+121131 in the XMM-NEWTON/XMMSSC catalogue Separation: 1.8" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 7.5e-01 +/- 9.4e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 7.9e-12 +/- 9.9e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) So the source is not significantly above the catalogued flux There is no evidence for fading NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. A SIMBAD object `2XMM J123059.4+121131' is 2.7" away This circular is an official product of the Swift team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18759 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: La Silla - QUEST observations 2015 Dec 28, 29 DATE: 15/12/29 21:59:11 GMT FROM: David Rabinowitz at Yale U SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: La Silla - QUEST observations 2015 Dec 28, 29 FROM: D. Rabinowitz, C. Baltay, N. Ellman (Yale), P. Nugent (LBNL) The La Silla-QUEST survey operating the 10-sq-deg QUEST camera on the 1.0m ESO Schmidt at La Silla, Chile has covered th e ~90% confidence area for LVC event G21117 between Dec +27 and -13 deg. Analysis is ongoing, and further survey observa tions are planned. One target (LSQ15bvw) has been detected with high confidence outside the 90% confidence region: LSQ Desig V-mag hh:mm:ss dd:mm:ss JD _________________________(J2000)___________________________ LSQ15bvw 18.8 02:08:15.97 15:02:52.80 2457385.6006 LSQ15bvw appears as an isolated source not visible in years 2012 and 2013. Observations made 2015 Oct 28 and 29 (V mag 19.2 on JD 2457384.6032 and V mag 18.8 on 2457385.6006) indicate that the object is brightening by ~ 0.5 mags per day. Several other sources have been detected with lower confidence. All appear as likely supernova near the center of distant (z>0.01) host galaxies : LSQ Desig V-mag hh:mm:ss dd:mm:ss JD _________________________(J2000)___________________________ LSQ15bvk 19.6 02:33:08.79 18:13:48.41 2457384.6297 LSQ15bvo 20.6 02:38:44.05 21:00:23.35 2457384.5775 LSQ15bvs 18.3 02:20:45.15 11:03:18.58 2457384.6032 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18762 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: iPTF Optical Transient Candidates DATE: 15/12/30 01:32:02 GMT FROM: Brad Cenko at NASA/GSFC S. B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC), Y. Cao (Caltech), R. Ferretti (Stockholm), L. Singer (NASA/GSFC), M. M. Kasliwal (Caltech), D. A. Perley (DARK), V. Bhalerao (IUCAA), R. Laher (IPAC), and T. Barlow (Caltech) report on behalf of the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory collaboration: We have performed tiled observations of LIGO/Virgo 211117 using the Palomar 48-inch Oschin telescope (P48). The northern probability island from the BAYESTAR localization was observable from Palomar for most of the night of 2015 December 28 UT. Starting at 1:57 UT (1.93 d after the LIGO trigger), we imaged 140 fields spanning 952 square degrees. We estimate a 51% prior probability that these fields contain the true location of the source. A subset of these fields (731 square degrees, containing 37% of the probability localization) were processed through standard iPTF pipelines (those with previously obtained reference images). Preliminary sifting through candidate variable sources using image subtraction by both our NERSC and IPAC pipelines, and applying standard iPTF vetting procedures, we flagged the following optical transient candidates for further follow-up: name RA Dec time mag z --------- ---------- ---------- ----- ----- ------- iPTF15fdv 38.690081 +18.343843 02:13 19.13 0.03419 iPTF15fhq 95.858071 +57.197553 09:47 18.92 0.04367 iPTF15fhl 187.056654 +17.617051 12:42 19.09 0.04372 iPTF15ffh 20.555150 -5.202027 03:46 18.93 0.06857 iPTF15fev 33.993552 +12.237196 02:42 17.64 0.018 iPTF15fel 47.303172 +27.521374 02:27 18.96 0.049 iPTF15ffz 22.266660 -8.227863 03:44 19.65 0.075 iPTF15ffi 35.437642 +7.617305 04:06 18.71 0.079 iPTF15fgk 30.201092 +10.255481 04:01 20.23 0.11 iPTF15ffk 35.650925 +6.877865 04:06 19.19 0.11 iPTF15ffo 36.172201 +7.150811 04:06 20.06 0.12 iPTF15fed 28.083908 +1.557477 02:00 19.93 0.22 iPTF15fib 33.144517 +17.763099 05:33 19.54 0.28 iPTF15feu 29.027105 +5.276469 02:03 20.44 0.70 iPTF15fgy 50.732616 +34.989945 05:47 19.52 iPTF15fhd 88.700355 +57.911389 09:42 19.70 iPTF15fhp 137.184825 +55.451767 10:07 19.43 iPTF15fen 50.406434 +31.452250 02:28 19.53 H iPTF15ffm 23.105842 -4.033150 03:47 19.81 H iPTF15fhf 100.769436 +55.466998 09:11 19.22 G? Where available, redshifts for nearby galaxy associations are provided, either spectroscopic (4 significant figures) or photometric redshifts from SDSS (2 significant figures). iPTF15fen and iPTF15ffm do not have obvious host galaxy associations in our reference imaging (H = hostless). iPTF15fhf is in the halo of a bright star, and may therefore be an image artifact (G = ghost). We obtained optical spectra of iPTF15fdv and iPTF15fhl with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the 8 m Gemini North telescope on 2015 December 29. iPTF15fdv is a type II SN, with broad P-Cygni features of H-alpha and Ca II. It is very likely unrelated to the G211117 trigger. Cross-correlation of the spectrum of iPTF15fhl with template spectra using the SuperNova IDentification code (Blondin and Tonry, ApJ, 2007, 666, 1024) reveals matches with a number of type Ic (and some Ib) supernovae. Of particular interest is a similarity with the peculiar SN Ib 2005bf (Folatelli et al, ApJ, 2006, 641, 1039). Further observations of this source are encouraged. We further note that the source reported by Itoh et al. (GCN 18742) is likely to be the minor planet 2606 Odessa, also visible in our P48 images near this time. Positions are stated in the ICRS. Times are in UTC. Magnitudes are based on image subtraction; they are in the Mould R filter and in the AB system, calibrated with respect to point sources in SDSS as described in Ofek et al. (2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/664065). The diagram https://gracedb.ligo.org/apiweb/events/G211117/files/iptf.pdf shows the locations of our candidates and the P48 fields in relation to the LIGO/Virgo localization. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18763 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: List of near-term future observation regions by Project Mini-GWAC of SVOM DATE: 15/12/30 01:56:54 GMT FROM: Chao Wu at NAOC J.Y. Wei (NAOC), C. WU(NAOC), N.Leroy (LAL), L.P. Xin (NAOC), X.H. Han (NAOC), X.M. Meng(NAOC), L. Huang(NAOC), Y. Xu(NAOC), H.B. Cai(NAOC),J. Wang(NAOC), X.M. Lu(NAOC), Y.L. Qiu (NAOC), J.S. Deng(NAOC), L. Cao(NAOC),S. Wang(NAOC), E.W.Liang (GXU), Y.G. Yang (HBNU), B. Cordier(CEA),S.N. Zhang (NAOC),S. Basa (LAM), B.B. Wu(IHEP), Jean-Luc Atteia (IRAP), D. Götz (CEA), Cyril Lachaud (APC) on behalf of the SVOM Gravitational Astronomy group report: We observed about 3200 square degree (8 sky regions) of the skymap of the advanced LIGO and Virgo trigger G211117, with Mini-GWAC(Mini Ground Wide Angle Camera), at Xinglong Observatory of NAOC equipped with U9000 camera(FOV~400 square degree/camera). Mini-GWAC comprises of 12 wide field angle cameras(aperture=7cm), working with unfiltered band. The observations are operated in time-series mode, taking one exposure in 15 seconds (10s exposure + 5s readout). The limit magnitude is ~12 mag in R band. The coordinates of the 8 regions and observation time are list following: #- RA(J2000) Dec(J2000) start-obs (UTC) end-obs (UTC) 04:00:36.007 +50:05:10.042 2015-12-26 15:40:33. 2015-12-26 18:29:37. 06:39:58.264 +50:51:18.330 2015-12-26 15:40:27. 2015-12-26 20:04:36. 11:59:40.897 +69:49:54.653 2015-12-26 15:55:37. 2015-12-26 18:44:40. 12:00:34.275 +29:36:35.499 2015-12-26 17:20:33. 2015-12-26 22:39:34. 13:28:29.736 +10:21:33.849 2015-12-26 18:45:34. 2015-12-26 22:39:25. 14:40:48.753 +50:06:02.281 2015-12-26 18:31:44. 2015-12-26 21:34:50. 14:52:33.057 +10:50:27.095 2015-12-26 20:06:55. 2015-12-26 22:39:31 16:15:01.695 +29:45:14.593 2015-12-26 21:37:03. 2015-12-26 22:39:30. Mini-GWAC is working in sky survey mode. The same sky regions were observed at Dec. 27 and 28. The image analysis is ongoing. Further observations of these fields are planned. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18764 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Optical Observations with Kiso Schmidt telescope and KWFC DATE: 15/12/30 06:58:11 GMT FROM: Tomoki Morokuma at U.TokyoJ-GEM Tomoki Morokuma (The University of Tokyo), Masaomi Tanaka (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Nozomu Tominaga (Konan University) Mamoru Doi, Kentaro Motohara, Yoichi Tamura (The University of Tokyo) on behalf of J-GEM collaboration We report optical imaging follow-up observations for a part of the northern skymap regions of G211117 with 1.05-m Kiso Schmidt telescope and its 2.2 deg x 2.2 deg field-of-view camera, Kiso Wide Field Camera (KWFC; Sako et al. 2012, SPIE, 8446, 84466L). We took 180-sec exposure images in r-band for 46 (222 deg2) and 130 (629 deg2) fields where the SDSS images are available as below on Dec 28 and 29, 2015, respectively. The 5-sigma limiting magnitudes are about 19-20 mag (AB). # 2015-12-28 (UT) RA(J2000) Dec(J2000) starting UTC 01:36:34.8 -02:05:22 2015-12-28T08:48:47 01:36:34.8 -04:10:47 2015-12-28T09:04:56 01:37:10.3 +06:16:08 2015-12-28T14:12:14 01:45:21.8 +02:05:23 2015-12-28T08:54:11 01:45:21.8 -00:00:00 2015-12-28T09:34:29 01:45:21.8 -02:05:23 2015-12-28T09:29:03 01:45:21.9 -04:10:46 2015-12-28T09:23:38 01:45:59.6 +06:16:09 2015-12-28T14:17:58 01:46:39.7 +08:21:32 2015-12-28T14:23:22 01:54:08.5 +04:10:47 2015-12-28T12:18:03 01:54:08.6 +00:00:00 2015-12-28T10:00:09 01:54:08.6 -02:05:22 2015-12-28T09:54:45 01:54:50.7 +06:16:12 2015-12-28T08:59:33 01:55:17.1 +02:05:24 2015-12-28T10:05:33 01:55:33.0 +08:21:32 2015-12-28T14:28:45 01:56:16.1 +10:26:56 2015-12-28T14:34:09 02:02:55.1 -02:05:25 2015-12-28T14:06:26 02:02:55.5 +02:05:22 2015-12-28T12:23:28 02:02:55.6 +04:10:46 2015-12-28T12:28:51 02:11:42.2 +04:10:46 2015-12-28T12:34:15 07:59:59.8 +50:09:36 2015-12-28T15:05:08 08:04:45.0 +52:15:00 2015-12-28T15:16:14 08:10:32.7 +56:25:49 2015-12-28T12:40:12 08:13:42.9 +50:09:36 2015-12-28T15:10:51 08:14:59.6 +54:20:25 2015-12-28T12:45:35 08:26:22.1 +56:25:49 2015-12-28T12:50:59 08:29:59.7 +54:20:25 2015-12-28T12:56:23 08:42:11.6 +56:25:49 2015-12-28T13:07:11 08:44:59.8 +54:20:25 2015-12-28T13:01:45 08:58:01.1 +56:25:50 2015-12-28T13:12:36 08:59:59.8 +54:20:25 2015-12-28T13:17:58 09:14:59.8 +54:20:26 2015-12-28T13:23:26 09:29:59.8 +54:20:26 2015-12-28T13:28:50 09:30:17.6 +52:15:01 2015-12-28T13:34:14 09:44:34.3 +52:15:02 2015-12-28T13:39:38 12:22:38.2 +14:37:49 2015-12-28T16:25:33 12:22:55.5 +16:43:12 2015-12-28T18:09:58 12:23:13.3 +18:48:36 2015-12-28T18:15:24 12:26:59.9 +12:32:24 2015-12-28T18:20:47 12:31:18.0 +10:27:00 2015-12-28T18:37:15 12:31:41.8 +14:37:48 2015-12-28T18:26:26 12:35:32.9 +08:21:36 2015-12-28T19:06:25 12:35:59.8 +12:32:25 2015-12-28T18:31:50 12:39:45.3 +06:16:12 2015-12-28T19:11:56 12:40:14.6 +10:27:00 2015-12-28T19:17:20 12:44:25.6 +08:21:35 2015-12-28T19:23:04 # 2015-12-29 (UT) RA(J2000) Dec(J2000) starting UTC 01:19:01.4 -04:10:47 2015-12-29T09:44:47 01:27:48.0 -02:05:23 2015-12-29T09:38:59 01:27:48.2 -04:10:46 2015-12-29T09:33:36 01:36:34.9 -00:00:00 2015-12-29T09:50:12 01:36:34.9 -04:10:47 2015-12-29T09:13:06 01:36:35.0 +02:05:23 2015-12-29T10:01:00 01:36:35.0 -02:05:22 2015-12-29T09:07:42 01:45:21.3 +04:10:47 2015-12-29T10:06:44 01:45:21.7 +02:05:24 2015-12-29T09:02:20 01:54:08.7 -04:10:47 2015-12-29T09:55:36 01:54:50.6 +06:16:11 2015-12-29T08:56:57 01:56:59.8 +12:32:23 2015-12-29T11:06:30 02:02:55.5 +00:00:00 2015-12-29T10:12:21 02:02:55.5 -04:10:47 2015-12-29T10:50:20 02:11:42.3 +00:00:00 2015-12-29T10:23:09 02:11:42.3 +02:05:24 2015-12-29T10:17:44 02:11:42.3 -02:05:23 2015-12-29T10:28:47 02:11:42.3 -04:10:47 2015-12-29T10:44:57 02:20:29.1 +02:05:24 2015-12-29T10:39:34 02:20:29.1 +04:10:47 2015-12-29T10:55:43 02:20:29.2 -00:00:00 2015-12-29T10:34:10 02:29:15.7 +04:10:47 2015-12-29T11:01:06 07:59:59.8 +54:20:26 2015-12-29T11:12:22 08:05:34.5 +58:31:14 2015-12-29T11:17:46 08:19:00.2 +52:15:02 2015-12-29T11:28:33 08:22:18.3 +58:31:14 2015-12-29T11:23:10 08:27:25.4 +50:09:38 2015-12-29T11:39:37 08:30:32.4 +48:04:13 2015-12-29T12:18:09 08:33:16.0 +52:15:02 2015-12-29T11:34:14 08:41:07.8 +50:09:38 2015-12-29T11:45:00 08:43:37.9 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T12:12:22 08:47:31.2 +52:15:03 2015-12-29T11:50:26 08:54:50.8 +50:09:39 2015-12-29T12:01:33 08:56:43.5 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T12:23:33 09:01:46.7 +52:15:01 2015-12-29T11:56:10 09:08:33.9 +50:09:38 2015-12-29T12:06:58 09:09:48.9 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T12:28:56 09:15:46.9 +45:58:50 2015-12-29T12:34:19 09:16:02.1 +52:15:01 2015-12-29T13:07:15 09:22:16.7 +50:09:37 2015-12-29T12:56:12 09:22:54.2 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T12:45:23 09:28:25.0 +45:58:49 2015-12-29T12:39:58 09:35:59.8 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T12:50:48 09:35:59.9 +50:09:37 2015-12-29T13:01:53 09:41:02.8 +45:58:49 2015-12-29T13:34:34 09:49:05.3 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T13:18:02 09:49:42.7 +50:09:38 2015-12-29T13:12:38 09:53:40.7 +45:58:50 2015-12-29T13:29:10 10:02:10.6 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T13:23:47 10:03:25.4 +50:09:37 2015-12-29T13:39:57 10:06:18.7 +45:58:50 2015-12-29T13:45:22 10:10:09.9 +43:53:26 2015-12-29T13:56:14 10:15:16.1 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T14:01:37 10:17:08.3 +50:09:37 2015-12-29T14:07:19 10:18:56.8 +45:58:50 2015-12-29T13:50:51 10:22:22.3 +43:53:25 2015-12-29T14:40:04 10:28:21.7 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T14:12:43 10:30:51.3 +50:09:37 2015-12-29T14:18:06 10:31:34.7 +45:58:50 2015-12-29T14:23:33 10:34:34.4 +43:53:25 2015-12-29T14:29:17 10:37:22.5 +41:48:01 2015-12-29T15:23:48 10:41:27.1 +48:04:13 2015-12-29T14:45:27 10:44:12.3 +45:58:49 2015-12-29T14:34:41 10:44:34.0 +50:09:37 2015-12-29T14:51:10 10:46:46.7 +43:53:26 2015-12-29T15:07:23 10:49:10.5 +41:48:01 2015-12-29T15:13:03 10:51:25.5 +39:42:37 2015-12-29T15:45:44 10:54:31.6 +48:04:14 2015-12-29T14:56:34 10:56:50.3 +45:58:49 2015-12-29T15:01:59 10:58:58.8 +43:53:25 2015-12-29T15:18:25 11:00:58.8 +41:48:01 2015-12-29T15:29:12 11:02:51.2 +39:42:36 2015-12-29T15:34:55 11:04:37.0 +37:37:13 2015-12-29T16:29:30 11:09:27.9 +45:58:49 2015-12-29T15:56:48 11:11:11.1 +43:53:25 2015-12-29T15:51:07 11:12:46.8 +41:48:01 2015-12-29T15:40:19 11:14:16.9 +39:42:37 2015-12-29T16:13:04 11:15:40.6 +37:37:12 2015-12-29T16:18:43 11:17:00.3 +35:31:49 2015-12-29T16:51:24 11:23:23.1 +43:53:25 2015-12-29T16:02:17 11:24:35.4 +41:48:01 2015-12-29T16:07:40 11:25:42.9 +39:42:37 2015-12-29T16:24:06 11:26:46.1 +37:37:12 2015-12-29T16:34:55 11:27:45.5 +35:31:48 2015-12-29T16:40:35 11:36:23.3 +41:48:00 2015-12-29T17:19:07 11:37:08.4 +39:42:36 2015-12-29T16:56:49 11:37:50.8 +37:37:13 2015-12-29T16:46:01 12:04:42.1 +20:53:59 2015-12-29T20:53:05 12:08:53.3 +08:21:35 2015-12-29T20:03:51 12:08:59.9 +12:32:23 2015-12-29T19:36:48 12:13:14.9 +06:16:12 2015-12-29T20:14:38 12:13:24.8 +10:26:59 2015-12-29T19:53:02 12:13:34.3 +14:37:48 2015-12-29T19:47:39 12:13:45.2 +16:43:11 2015-12-29T20:42:14 12:13:56.0 +18:48:36 2015-12-29T20:47:36 12:14:06.8 +20:53:59 2015-12-29T20:58:29 12:17:33.4 +04:10:48 2015-12-29T20:25:25 12:17:46.6 +08:21:35 2015-12-29T19:58:28 12:17:59.7 +12:32:23 2015-12-29T19:31:07 12:22:04.8 +06:16:11 2015-12-29T20:20:00 12:22:21.4 +10:27:00 2015-12-29T19:42:14 12:26:20.1 +04:10:47 2015-12-29T20:30:48 12:26:40.0 +08:21:36 2015-12-29T20:09:14 12:30:55.2 +06:16:12 2015-12-29T20:36:11 12:32:05.8 +16:43:12 2015-12-29T19:20:22 12:32:30.7 +18:48:36 2015-12-29T19:25:44 12:35:07.0 +00:00:01 2015-12-29T17:58:18 12:40:45.3 +14:37:48 2015-12-29T19:09:32 12:41:16.1 +16:43:12 2015-12-29T19:14:55 12:43:53.7 +02:05:26 2015-12-29T17:13:43 12:43:53.9 +00:00:02 2015-12-29T17:52:55 12:43:53.9 +04:10:50 2015-12-29T17:08:19 12:44:59.9 +12:32:24 2015-12-29T19:04:07 12:48:35.0 +06:16:13 2015-12-29T17:02:56 12:49:11.4 +10:27:00 2015-12-29T18:53:13 12:52:40.4 +00:00:02 2015-12-29T17:41:26 12:52:40.5 +02:05:25 2015-12-29T17:30:38 12:52:40.6 +04:10:49 2015-12-29T17:25:15 12:53:19.5 +08:21:36 2015-12-29T18:41:59 12:53:59.9 +12:32:24 2015-12-29T18:58:41 12:57:25.2 +06:16:13 2015-12-29T18:31:06 12:58:07.9 +10:27:00 2015-12-29T18:47:22 13:01:27.5 +02:05:26 2015-12-29T17:36:04 13:01:27.6 +00:00:01 2015-12-29T17:47:23 13:01:27.6 +04:10:48 2015-12-29T18:25:37 13:02:13.1 +08:21:37 2015-12-29T18:36:35 13:10:13.8 +02:05:25 2015-12-29T18:09:27 13:10:14.4 +00:00:02 2015-12-29T18:03:47 13:10:14.4 +04:10:49 2015-12-29T18:20:15 13:19:01.2 +00:00:03 2015-12-29T18:14:51 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18768 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: MASTER Observations of the 3 iPTF candidates DATE: 15/12/30 11:11:02 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V. Lipunov, N.Tyurina Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute After MASTER DataBase checking we found: iPTF15fev - Known old SN ASAS15rw MASTER-IAC Light Curve http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/iPTFfev.jpg iPTF15fel - 2015-12-16 23:07:20 visible in MASTER-IAC PSN detected 10 days before G211117 iPTF15ffm - observed by MASTER-IAC from 2015-11-15 22:14:53.869 so >40 days before trigger The reduction is continuated. The delay is connected with yang age of the MASTER-IAC survey (started June 2015). So we lost time to transfere parts of DATABase from Russia to IAC telescope. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18771 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: SkyMapper observations and transient candidate DATE: 15/12/30 13:44:59 GMT FROM: Fang Yuan at ANU Fang Yuan, Christian Wolf, Brian Schmidt (ANU) We report tiled observations of LIGO/Virgo G211117 using the 1.3m SkyMapper telescope located at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Starting UTC 2015-12-29T17:09:41 (3.56 days after the trigger), SkyMapper observed 20 fields, covering a sky area of about 110 sq. deg, with 2x30s i-band exposures. Footprint of the observations has been uploaded to GraceDB. These fields are selected based on weight calculated from the GW skymap, the GW Galaxy Catalogue (augmented by 2MASS Ks photometry) and existence of SkyMapper pre-trigger observations. Using the latest GW skymap, we estimate a chance of 9% that these fields contain the true location of the source. Images were taken during twilight with limiting mag of about 18.6 in i-band. Image subtraction have been performed against SkyMapper templates taken from May to July 2015 as part of the Southern Sky Survey. One optical transient candidate has been detected with the following details: ID, RA, DEC, mag, filter, JD, Apparent Host (redshift) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SMTJ13331687-1607330, 13:33:16.87, -16:07:33.0, 18.0+/-0.1, i, 2457386.2387, MCG -03-35-004 (0.020) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18774 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: OAO-WFC NIR follow-up observations DATE: 15/12/30 14:31:26 GMT FROM: Michitoshi Yoshida at J-GEM K. Yanagisawa, D. Kuroda (OAO/NAOJ), K. Ohta(Kyoto), N. Kawai(Tokyo Tech.) and M. Yoshida (Hiroshima) on behalf of the J-GEM collaboration We carried out J-band imaging observations of 66 nearby galaxies to search for new point sources associated with the objects, in responce to G211117. The observations were made on 28th and 29th December 2015, with a wide-field infrared camera (D=0.91 m), OAOWFC, of Okayama Astrophysical Observatory (Japan). We could find no new point sources brighter than the limiting magnitude of J=17-18(S/N=3) in Vega system. The photometric calibration was made against 2MASS field stars. #---------------------------------------------------------------------- #Time(UT) exposure[sec] ra[deg.] width[arcrmin] dec[deg.] #width[arcmin] J-Upperlimit(3-sigma) Object 2015-12-28T08:43:12.520 1200 29.1850 4.0 4.0900 4.0 17.8 PGC1263321 2015-12-28T09:10:19.131 900 29.2078 4.0 4.0256 4.0 17.8 UGC01424 2015-12-28T09:30:41.517 900 29.3356 4.0 4.3485 4.0 17.8 PGC007354 2015-12-28T09:51:03.997 900 29.8521 4.0 5.5928 4.0 17.9 PGC1285927 2015-12-28T10:11:16.345 900 31.1301 4.0 6.6357 4.0 18.0 PGC3091794 2015-12-28T10:31:28.310 900 33.0117 4.0 9.5161 4.0 17.9 UGC01694 2015-12-28T10:51:47.454 900 33.4026 4.0 10.3363 4.0 18.0 UGC01714 2015-12-28T11:12:02.227 900 34.4222 4.0 12.4706 4.0 18.0 IC1791 2015-12-28T11:32:13.798 900 34.5632 4.0 13.2044 4.0 18.2 UGC01773 2015-12-28T11:52:30.558 900 35.5554 4.0 12.0300 4.0 18.2 UGC01834 2015-12-28T12:12:45.699 900 37.1137 4.0 15.6071 4.0 18.3 UGC01946 2015-12-28T12:33:12.572 900 39.3358 4.0 20.4153 4.0 18.2 PGC009935 2015-12-28T12:53:45.424 900 39.3678 4.0 21.1420 4.0 18.3 PGC009944 2015-12-28T13:13:53.799 900 39.7754 4.0 18.3839 4.0 18.3 UGC02140 2015-12-28T13:34:15.913 900 40.8671 4.0 20.5960 4.0 18.3 PGC2807171 2015-12-28T13:54:34.347 900 42.2875 4.0 23.0175 4.0 18.3 UGC02290 2015-12-28T14:14:47.967 900 42.7106 4.0 22.7720 4.0 18.3 PGC010806 2015-12-28T14:34:57.807 900 43.2791 4.0 25.4904 4.0 18.2 IC1861 2015-12-28T14:55:22.717 900 43.6767 4.0 23.3781 4.0 18.2 PGC087212 2015-12-28T15:15:37.143 900 44.5133 4.0 25.4492 4.0 18.0 PGC011222 2015-12-28T15:36:02.888 900 49.2784 4.0 31.5834 4.0 18.1 UGC02629 2015-12-28T15:56:23.389 900 55.6185 4.0 38.9676 4.0 18.1 PGC013618 2015-12-28T16:16:33.489 900 55.9870 4.0 39.2952 4.0 18.0 UGC02836 2015-12-28T16:36:42.387 900 56.9158 4.0 39.3469 4.0 17.9 UGC02861 2015-12-28T16:56:57.534 900 57.0385 4.0 37.4571 4.0 17.8 PGC165376 2015-12-28T17:17:23.059 900 57.7660 4.0 36.8959 4.0 17.8 UGC02877 2015-12-28T17:37:34.003 900 58.2341 4.0 40.1128 4.0 17.8 PGC097023 2015-12-28T17:58:04.786 900 73.0778 4.0 49.5490 4.0 17.8 PGC016210 2015-12-28T18:18:24.226 900 77.2006 4.0 51.5931 4.0 17.9 PGC097076 2015-12-28T18:38:40.918 900 78.5205 4.0 50.0097 4.0 17.8 PGC016947 2015-12-28T19:00:03.052 900 197.4194 4.0 -7.8334 4.0 17.7 NGC4995 2015-12-28T19:20:20.267 900 197.5713 4.0 -7.4543 4.0 17.4 PGC045697 2015-12-28T19:40:34.433 900 197.6181 4.0 -7.6504 4.0 17.8 PGC045726 2015-12-28T20:00:59.196 900 197.8193 4.0 -7.2722 4.0 16.9 PGC1021744 2015-12-28T20:21:16.212 900 194.2792 4.0 -0.8078 4.0 18.2 PGC1134210 2015-12-28T20:41:32.724 900 194.3536 4.0 -0.6225 4.0 18.2 PGC044291 2015-12-29T09:39:12.292 900 27.1256 4.0 -0.2127 4.0 17.9 PGC1149052 2015-12-29T09:59:21.550 900 27.1274 4.0 -0.0629 4.0 17.9 PGC006630 2015-12-29T10:19:30.971 900 27.5294 4.0 -0.7401 4.0 18.5 UGC01296 2015-12-29T10:39:48.056 900 29.2010 4.0 5.3101 4.0 18.1 NGC741_ZM98_0105 2015-12-29T10:59:53.151 900 29.2283 4.0 5.2558 4.0 18.1 NGC741_ZM98_9936 2015-12-29T11:20:13.887 900 29.3083 4.0 5.2938 4.0 18.0 NGC741_ZM98_0061 2015-12-29T11:40:34.299 900 29.3442 4.0 5.7128 4.0 17.3 PGC1287898 2015-12-29T12:00:36.618 900 29.4207 4.0 5.8331 4.0 17.6 PGC007384 2015-12-29T12:20:46.822 900 29.5218 4.0 3.0830 4.0 17.8 PGC007415 2015-12-29T12:41:01.414 900 29.5696 4.0 6.0622 4.0 17.3 NGC741_ZM98_9835 2015-12-29T13:01:04.548 900 29.6379 4.0 6.0711 4.0 18.0 PGC1294057 2015-12-29T13:21:14.921 900 29.7225 4.0 5.5939 4.0 17.5 UGC01461 2015-12-29T13:41:29.615 900 30.2732 4.0 6.5230 4.0 18.1 UGC01505 2015-12-29T14:01:35.508 900 30.6981 4.0 7.8151 4.0 18.1 PGC138496 2015-12-29T14:21:51.343 900 32.1156 4.0 6.3949 4.0 17.9 IC0208 2015-12-29T14:46:06.233 900 55.4349 4.0 39.3371 4.0 17.9 UGC02818 2015-12-29T15:06:16.196 900 59.8890 4.0 42.6166 4.0 18.1 UGC02912 2015-12-29T15:26:56.055 900 103.1141 4.0 57.1628 4.0 18.2 UGC03569 2015-12-29T15:47:20.769 900 106.2100 4.0 56.5203 4.0 18.4 UGC03647 2015-12-29T16:07:34.551 900 109.0435 4.0 56.8232 4.0 17.3 PGC020543 2015-12-29T16:27:55.082 900 116.5172 4.0 57.1019 4.0 18.5 PGC021738 2015-12-29T16:51:02.961 720 54.9038 4.0 38.6897 4.0 17.8 UGC02808 2015-12-29T17:08:22.887 960 194.2792 4.0 -0.8078 4.0 17.8 PGC1134210 2015-12-29T17:29:55.263 900 194.3536 4.0 -0.6225 4.0 18.7 PGC044291 2015-12-29T17:50:12.111 900 195.1905 4.0 -2.7181 4.0 17.8 PGC1084547 2015-12-29T18:10:21.448 900 195.2346 4.0 -2.9222 4.0 18.3 PGC1079855 2015-12-29T18:30:32.650 2700 197.8193 4.0 -7.2722 4.0 18.9 PGC1021744 2015-12-29T18:53:00.443 1020 195.3934 4.0 -3.6711 4.0 18.3 PGC3271645 2015-12-29T19:55:00.821 900 195.3963 4.0 -3.9583 4.0 18.3 PGC1064772 2015-12-29T20:15:15.789 900 195.4537 4.0 -4.6169 4.0 17.6 PGC1055748 2015-12-29T20:35:27.248 900 195.5310 4.0 -3.8046 4.0 18.5 PGC1066638 2015-12-29T20:56:00.129 900 195.8425 4.0 -2.9894 4.0 18.4 PGC1078511 #---------------------------------------------------------------------- //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18775 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: INAF TNG follow-up of MASTER OT J020906.21+013800.1 DATE: 15/12/30 15:40:07 GMT FROM: Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB P. D'Avanzo, A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), S. Piranomonte (INAF-OAR), E. Palazzi (INAF-IAFS Bo), E. Cappellaro (INAF-OAPd), E. Brocato (INAF-OAR), M. Branchesi (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), L.Amati (INAF-IASF Bo), L. A. Antonelli, (INAF-OAR), P. Astone (INFN-Roma), S. Campana, S. Covino (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (INAF-ASDC), F. Getman (INAF-OAC), G. Giuffrida (INAF-ASDC), A.Grado (INAF-OAC), G.Greco (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), L. Limatola (INAF-OAC), M. Lisi (INAF-OAR), S. Marinoni, P. Marrese (INAF-ASDC), L. Nicastro, E. Pian (SNS-Pisa), L. Pulone (INAF-OAR), F. Ricci (Sapienza University), G. Stratta (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB), V. Testa (INAF-OAR), L. Tomasella (INAF-OAPd), V. Lorenzi, A. Garcia de Gurtubai Escudero (INAF-TNG) on behalf of the INAF Gravitational Astronomy group report: We observed the field of the optical transient MASTER OT J020906.21+013800.1 (Lipunov et al. GCN Circ. 18729) with the 3.6m Italian TNG telescope (Canary Islands, Spain), equipped with the DOLORES camera in imaging and spectroscopic mode starting on 2015 Dec 28.8247 UT. We note that the position of the optical transient reported Lipunov et al. (GCN Circ. 18729) is superposed to the galaxy SDSS J020906.10+013759.9. This galaxy is clearly visible in our 30s acquisition image obtained with the r-sdss filter, while there is no evidence for the optical transient. From a preliminary analysis, an upper limit r=21.0 mag (AB) has been obtained by placing fake stars of different magnitudes at the reported transient position. Calibration was obtained with reference to SDSS stars in the field. Two optical spectra, each one lasting 900s, were obtained at a mid time of 2015 Dec 28.8367 UT using the grism LR-B (wavelength range 4000 8000 AA). The slit was placed at the position of the optical transient. In the co-added spectrum we identify the emission lines O[III] and Halpha at a common redshift of z~0.034, superposed to the galaxy continuum. This redshift value is in agreement with the photometric redshift z=0.034 0.074 reported by the SDSS for this galaxy. At such redshift, the observed magnitude of the optical transient reported by Lipunov et al. (GCN Circ. 18729) corresponds to an absolute magnitude of -17.6. Our results suggest that, at the epoch of our observations, the optical transient reported by Lipunov et al. (GCN Circ. 18729) already faded below its host galaxy level. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18776 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: MAGIC very-high energy gamma-ray observations DATE: 15/12/30 16:14:44 GMT FROM: Antonio Stamerra at INAF-OATo/SNS-Pisa Angelo Antonelli (INAF-OaR), Alessandro Carosi (INAF-OaR), Barbara de Lotto (Univ. Udine), Razmik Mirzoyan (MPI-Müenchen) and Antonio Stamerra (INAF-OaTo and SNS-Pisa) on behalf of the MAGIC collaboration The MAGIC system of Cherenkov Telescopes, sensitive to high-energy gamma-ray above ~50 GeV, performed observations of 4 regions in the strip of the bayestar GW map for the trigger G211117. Observations started on December 28, 21 UT. Each observation covers a region of ~2.5x2.5 deg. Analysis is on-going. The list of targets is the following: Target 1: PGC1200980 (OT MASTER GCN#18729) RA,Dec (J2000): 02:09:05.8, +01:38:03.0 Duration: 42 min Target 2: strip from GW map RA,Dec (J2000): 02:38:38.93, +16:36:59.27 Duration: 56 min (moonlight conditions) Target 3: Field VST (GCN#18734) RA,Dec (J2000): 02:38:02.208, +19:13:12.00 Duration: 28 min (moonlight conditions) Target 4: Field VST (GCN#18734) RA,Dec (J2000): 03:18:23.712, +31:13:12.00 Duration: 30 min (moonlight conditions) MAGIC is a system of two 17m-diameter Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes located at the Canary island of La Palma, Spain, and designed to perform gamma-ray astronomy in the energy range from 50 GeV to greater than 50 TeV. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18779 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: LBT Follow-up of iPTF15fen DATE: 15/12/31 06:13:42 GMT FROM: Peter Garnavich at Notre Dame P. Garnavich (Notre Dame) reports: R. Pogge (OSU), J. Turner (UVa), and B. Rothberg (LBTO) obtained LBT/MODS spectra of iPTF15fen (Cenko et al., GCN 18762), the "hostless" candidate at 03:21:37.544 +31:27:08.1 (J2000). Spectra were taken 2015 Dec. 31.1 (UT) and cover 330 nm to 1.0 microns. The r-band acquisition image shows an unresolved source at the position of the iPTF transient. The red Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) image from 1992 also shows this source. The combined spectrum reveals a blue continuum with broad and extremely weak absorption features. The clearest features correspond to Balmer absorption lines of H-beta, H-gamma, and H-delta at low velocity. The source is likely a hydrogen-rich accretion disk in outburst. iPTF15fen is probably a Galactic dwarf nova or a nova-like cataclysmic variable. No narrow emission is detected at the center of the Balmer absorption features as often seen in outbursting disks, but this may be due to the low signal-to-noise ratio of these features. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18780 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: VLA follow-up DATE: 15/12/31 08:35:24 GMT FROM: Nipuni Palliyaguru at TTU Nipuni Palliyaguru (TTU) and Alessandra Corsi (TTU) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We imaged the position of the iPTF transient 15fhl (Cenko et al. GCN 18762); RA(J2000)=12h 28m 13.60s Dec(J2000)=+17d 37’ 01.4''), located in the error region of LIGO/Virgo G211117 (LVC et al., GCN 18728), with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The observations started on 30 Dec 10:28:35 UT, ended on 30 Dec 11:28:15 UT, and were carried out in C-band (central frequency of about 6 GHz) with the VLA in its D configuration. Analysis is ongoing and further observations are planned. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18782 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Liverpool Telescope followup of EM candidates DATE: 15/12/31 10:19:09 GMT FROM: Iain Steele at Liverpool/JMU I.A. Steele & C.M. Copperwheat (Liverpool JMU) report the following observations of EM candidates associated with G211117.  All observations were obtained using the 2.0 metre Liverpool Telescope, La Palma. Master OTJ020906 (GCN 18729) was observed with the IO:O imaging camera in the R band with exposure time 150 seconds on 2015-12-28 at 21:00UT.   The transient could not be distinguished by eye from the host galaxy to an  approximate limiting magnitude of R~20 with respect to USNO objects in the image. The reported transient in galacy UGC1410 (GCN 18742) was observed with  the acquisition camera of the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-29 at 19:48UT.  No source was visible in the 10 second white light acquisition images  at the reported coordinates - we note the report from iPTF that this  is likely a solar system object (GCN 18762). LSQ15BVW (GCN 18759) was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-29 at 23:20UT.  No source was apparent at the reported coordinates in the 10 second white light acqusition images to a limiting magnitude of R~19.5 with respect to USNO objects in the image. iPTF-15ffh (GCN 18762) was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 19:04UT.  A spectrum was obtained and classification is underway. iPTF-15ffi (GCN 18762) was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 19:43UT.  A spectrum was obtained and classification is  underway.   iPTF-15fel (GCN 18762) was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 20:20UT.  A spectrum was obtained and classification is underway.   iPTF-15fhq (GCN 18762) was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 21:22UT.  A spectrum was obtained and classification is underway. iPTF-15fev (GCN 18762) was ovserved with the SPRAT spectrograpg on 2015-12-30 at 21:55UT.  A spectrum was obtained and classification is underway. iPTF-15fhl (GCN 18762) was observed with the SPRAT spectrograoph on 2015-12-31 at 02:48UT.  A spectrum was obtained and classification is underway. DisclaimerNone //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18784 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: MAXI/GSC observations DATE: 15/12/31 14:39:15 GMT FROM: Nobuyuki Kawai at Tokyo Tech/MAXI H. Negoro (Nihon U.), M. Serino (RIKEN), N. Kawai (Tokyo Tech), S. Ueno, H. Tomida, S. Nakahira, M. Ishikawa, Y. E. Nakagawa (JAXA), T. Mihara, M. Sugizaki, M. Shidatsu, J. Sugimoto, T. Takagi, M. Matsuoka (RIKEN), M. Arimoto, T. Yoshii, Y. Tachibana, Y. Ono, T. Fujiwara (Tokyo Tech), A. Yoshida, T. Sakamoto, Y. Kawakubo, H. Ohtsuki (AGU), H. Tsunemi, R.Imatani (Osaka U.), M. Nakajima, K. Tanaka, T. Masumitsu (Nihon U.), Y. Ueda, T. Kawamuro, T. Hori, A. Tanimoto (Kyoto U.), Y. Tsuboi, S. Kanetou, Y. Nakamura, R. Sasaki (Chuo U.), M. Yamauchi, D. Itoh, K. Furuya (Miyazaki U.), K. Yamaoka (Nagoya U.), M. Morii (ISM) report on behalf of the MAXI team: We examined the MAXI/GSC all-sky X-ray images (2-10 keV) obtained in the orbits immediately preceding and following the LVC trigger G211117 at 2015-12-26T03:38:53 UTC (Singer et al. GCN 18728). In each of the 92-min orbits, MAXI/GSC scanned more than 80% of the whole sky, which includes approximately half of the high-significance regions in the bayestar skymap. No significant new source was found in these scans. The upper limits for the X-ray flux are different depending on the part of the sky. For instance, the 2-10 keV 1-sigma upper limits obtained at the center of the OT source region (Lipunov et al. GCN 18729) are 26 mCrab at 03:32 and 22 mCrab at 05:04 on December 26. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18786 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: 44 transients from Pan-STARRS data during 2015-12-28/30 DATE: 15/12/31 17:38:41 GMT FROM: S. J. Smartt at Queens U Belfast K. Smith, S. Smartt D. Wright, (Queen’s University Belfast), K. C. Chambers, M. E. Huber, A. S. B. Schultz (IfA, University of Hawaii), M. Coughlin (Harvard), L. Denneau, H. Flewelling, A. Heinze, R. Kotak (QUB), E. A. Magnier, N. Primak, A. Rest (STScI), A. Sherstyuk (IfA), B. Stalder (IfA), C. W. Stubbs (Harvard), J. Tonry, C. Waters (IfA), D. Young (QUB) Following our report of Pan-STARRS observations of the northern arc, (Chambers et al. GCN 18735), we report the following transients. All objects were identified in difference imaging with respect to the Pan-STARRS 3Pi all sky i-band image (see Magnier et al. 2013, ApJS 205, 20 ; Huber et al. 2015, ATel 7153) and standard filtering procedures combined with machine learning (Wright et al. 2015, MNRAS, 449, 451). We have removed obvious moving objects, variable star and AGN/QSO candidates as far as possible through cross-matching with known catalogues and the MPC. Further refined cross-matches are noted below. The rest are transients which are not obviously associated with a single star or a galaxy core. All magnitudes are in the Pan-STARRS i-band (AB mags), and the discovery date is UTC. Targets are sorted by time of discovery. Approximately 10-15 of the brighter targets are queued for observing with Gemini, Magellan, PESSTO, and the Liverpool Telescope. Pan-STARRS has observed the field as noted in (Chambers et al. GCN 18735) on three nights from (20151228, 20151229, 20151230) and plans another 5 epochs between now and 2016 01 25. Some more specific notes (1) this was reported as iPTF15fgy Cenko et al. (GCN 18762) but we have a detection 24 days previously on 57360 by PSST (Huber et al. 2015). (2) discovered as PSNJ02344555+1820390 before the G211117 trigger (3) Lipunov et al. (GCN 18768) report iPTF15fel as being visible in MASTER images more than 40 days before the G211117 trigger (4) Faint transient, or more likely variable, in NGC1156 which is a very nearby galaxy (7Mpc). At M_i = -9, this is most likely an LBV or S-Doradus type variability of a massive star and indeed the candidate is coincident with a bright, stellar knot. We welcome notification of other cross-matches that we may have omitted, or duplications that we may have missed. Name RA (J2000) Dec (J2000) Disc. Date Disc. MJD Disc Mag PS15dcq 03 22 55.83 +34 59 23.6 20151228.29 57384.29 19.99 (1) iPTF15fgy PS15dov 03 43 57.36 +39 17 43.7 20151228.32 57384.32 19.73 4.2” from SN2003ih PS15dot 02 11 55.69 +13 28 17.8 20151228.34 57384.34 20.97 PS15coh 02 15 58.45 +12 14 13.6 20151228.34 57384.34 17.72 ASASSN-15rw, iPTF15fev PS15dow 02 19 42.20 +14 09 54.7 20151228.34 57384.34 20.22 PS15csf 02 26 02.24 +17 03 40.4 20151228.35 57384.35 18.68 MASTER OT J022037.36+170217.5 PS15dom 02 34 45.62 +18 20 37.7 20151228.35 57384.35 19.01 (2) PSNJ02344555+1820390, iPTF15fdv PS15don 02 37 11.44 +19 03 20.2 20151228.35 57384.35 20.47 PS15dox 02 40 15.05 +22 32 12.1 20151228.38 57384.38 19.23 PS15doy 02 47 54.16 +21 46 24.0 20151228.38 57384.38 20.75 PS15dpq 03 09 12.74 +27 31 16.9 20151228.39 57384.39 18.84 (3) iPTF15fel PS15dpa 02 57 56.02 +28 53 37.1 20151228.40 57384.40 19.51 PS15dpp 03 00 39.86 +28 15 25.4 20151228.40 57384.40 20.63 likely stellar PS15dop 03 17 29.58 +29 34 09.2 20151228.40 57384.40 20.01 probable AGN PS15dpe 05 44 42.66 +52 24 57.9 20151228.43 57384.43 19.44 PS15dpl 05 47 45.39 +53 36 32.4 20151228.43 57384.43 19.34 PS15dpj 05 08 12.38 +51 37 10.2 20151228.44 57384.44 18.45 PS15dpd 05 09 58.63 +50 47 09.4 20151228.44 57384.44 20.34 PS15dpi 03 36 41.65 +35 57 56.4 20151228.52 57384.52 17.62 RR Lyrae; CSS J033641.5+355756 PS15dpn 02 32 59.75 +18 38 07.0 20151229.23 57385.23 20.69 PS15dpf 02 49 32.57 +21 47 09.4 20151229.24 57385.24 20.69 PS15doz 02 53 41.68 +27 29 57.8 20151229.25 57385.25 20.69 PS15dpo 02 59 49.56 +25 10 30.4 20151229.25 57385.25 20.55 probable AGN/QSO PS15dpc 03 55 46.16 +38 52 49.6 20151229.27 57385.27 20.95 PS15dqc 05 51 13.43 +52 28 18.7 20151229.29 57385.29 21.16 PS15dpz 02 40 33.01 +23 00 10.8 20151229.32 57385.32 21.15 PS15dpb 03 42 23.40 +39 14 40.4 20151229.36 57385.36 20.20 PS15dpk 05 09 35.10 +50 09 08.7 20151229.38 57385.38 19.66 PS15dpg 03 17 18.88 +32 20 06.9 20151229.41 57385.41 20.86 PS15dps 03 22 31.49 +34 36 36.6 20151229.43 57385.43 20.41 PS15dpr 03 16 12.16 +31 04 01.3 20151229.46 57385.46 19.78 PS15dph 03 24 15.04 +30 56 20.1 20151229.46 57385.46 20.17 PS15dou 06 03 38.73 +54 41 12.1 20151229.56 57385.56 20.20 PS15dpx 06 04 35.54 +53 35 25.8 20151229.56 57385.56 20.76 PS15dpm 06 19 54.15 +54 18 10.3 20151229.56 57385.56 20.48 PS15dpt 02 07 34.96 +11 03 25.2 20151230.22 57386.22 20.64 PS15dpy 02 28 22.75 +13 59 19.3 20151230.22 57386.22 21.31 PS15dpu 02 40 41.35 +16 49 52.0 20151230.22 57386.22 17.26 ASASSN-15un PS15dqa 02 59 41.20 +25 14 12.2 20151230.24 57386.24 20.93 (4) in NGC1156 (7Mpc) PS15dpw 04 10 16.52 +43 35 22.8 20151230.27 57386.27 19.29 PS15dqd 05 56 14.60 +52 51 55.2 20151230.37 57386.37 19.92 PS15dqe 06 05 26.88 +54 09 11.3 20151230.37 57386.37 21.51 PS15dqb 03 28 34.85 +31 59 08.2 20151230.43 57386.43 19.93 PS15dpv 03 40 02.91 +36 07 52.2 20151230.43 57386.43 20.93 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18789 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: LBT follow-up imaging of iPTF15fhq DATE: 15/12/31 20:04:21 GMT FROM: Peter Garnavich at Notre Dame P. Garnavich (Notre Dame) reports: R. Pogge (OSU), J. Turner (UVa), and B. Rothberg (LBTO) obtained LBT/MODS imaging of iPTF15fhq (Cenko et al., GCN 18762), at 06:23:25.937 +57:11:51.19 (J2000). Images were taken in the r-band filter with the MODS instrument in acquisition mode on 2015 Dec. 31.25 (UT) in 1.0 arcsec seeing (FWHM). A pair of interacting galaxies (VII Zw 70) is seen with the transient expected near the northern galaxy. No transient with a stellar PSF is detected in the LBT image to a magnitude limit of approximately r=21 mag. Further imaging is needed to decide if the galaxy core could be the source of the variability. Note that a spectrum of this candidate (possibly centered on the galaxy core) was obtained with the Liverpool Telescope (Steele & Copperwheat, GCN 18782) on 2015 Dec 30.9 (UT). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18790 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: FLOYDS Classification of SMTJ13331687-1607330 as a Two-Week-Old Type Ia Supernova DATE: 15/12/31 20:09:35 GMT FROM: Griffin Hosseinzadeh at LCOGT G. Hosseinzadeh, I. Arcavi, D. A. Howell, C. McCully (LCOGT/UCSB), and S. Valenti (UC Davis) report the classification of the EM candidate SMTJ13331687-1607330 (GCN 18771) associated with gravitational wave event G211117 (GCN 18728) based on a spectrum obtained 2015 December 31.6 UT with the robotic FLOYDS instrument mounted on the Faulkes Telescope North. SNID (Blondin & Tonry 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) gives good fits to several normal Type Ia supernovae around two weeks after maximum light at redshifts consistent with that of the proposed host galaxy (z=0.020; Catinella, Haynes, & Giovanelli 2005, AJ, 130, 1037 via NED). Since the LIGO trigger occurred less than six days earlier on 2015 December 26.2, SMTJ13331687-1607330 is likely unassociated with the gravitational wave event. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18791 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Liverpool Telescope classification of EM candidates DATE: 15/12/31 20:40:06 GMT FROM: Chris Copperwheat at LJMU ArI In GCN 18782 we reported spectroscopic follow-up observations of a number of the EM candidates reported by Cenko et al. in GCN 18762. We now provide the following classifications using these data. All observations were obtained using the 2.0 metre Liverpool Telescope, La Palma by C.M. Copperwheat & I.A. Steele (Liverpool JMU) on behalf of a wider collaboration. iPTF-15ffi was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 19:43UT. Classification using SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) indicates the transient is a type Ia supernova with z = 0.073 -/+ 0.004 at 9.5 days past peak. This redshift is consistent with the SDSS photometric redshift of the proposed host galaxy (z=0.079). iPTF-15fel was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 20:20UT. Classification using SNID indicates the transient is a type Ia supernova with z = 0.042 -/+ 0.005 at 35.6 days past peak. This redshift is consistent with the SDSS photometric redshift of the proposed host galaxy (z=0.049). iPTF-15fhq was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 21:22UT. The spectrum shows a number of emission lines, and we believe this source is most likely an AGN. iPTF-15fev was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 21:55UT. Classification using SNID indicates the transient is a type Ia supernova with z = 0.020 -/+ 0.002 at 53.1 days past peak. This redshift is consistent with the SDSS photometric redshift of the proposed host galaxy (z=0.018). iPTF-15fhl was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-31 at 02:48UT. We detect a narrow emission line on top of the host galaxy spectrum, which is at a wavelength consistent with H-alpha at the proposed host galaxy redshift (z=0.044). iPTF-15ffh was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2015-12-30 at 19:04UT. These data were obtained in twilight and are of poorer quality, and the spectrum we obtain appears to be dominated by the host galaxy. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18800 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: La Silla - QUEST observations 2015 Dec 28 - 30 DATE: 16/01/01 19:45:41 GMT FROM: David Rabinowitz at Yale U D. Rabinowitz, C. Baltay, N. Ellman (Yale), P. Nugent (LBNL) The La Silla-QUEST survey operating the 10-sq-deg QUEST camera on the 1.0m ESO Schmidt at La Silla, Chile is continuing coverage begun 2015 Dec 28 of the ~90% confidence area for LVC event G21117 between Dec +27 and -13 deg. Two new candidates have been detected with high confidence, verified from observations made Dec 30 LSQ Desig V-mag RA (deg) Dec (deg) JD __________________________________________________________ LSQ15bwe 19.2 36.509181 17.06122 2457386.6243 LSQ15bwd 17.0 39.661939 16.61666 2457386.6243 LSQ15bwe appears as a likely supernova 0.22 arcmin north-west of galaxy 2MASX J02260249+1703274i. The brightness has not changed significantly between 2015 Dec 28 and 30, indicating a likely onset prior to the G21117 event. LSQ15bdw is coincident with QSO [HB89] 0235+164 which has readshift z = 0.85. The source brightened from V = 18.2 to 17.6 between 2015 Dec 28 and 30 and is 1.5 to 2.0 mags brighter than its appearance in previous epochs (2012, 2013, 2014). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18803 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: CSS/CRTS observations on 29/30 Dec 2015 UT DATE: 16/01/02 09:15:51 GMT FROM: Ashish Mahabal at Caltech A.A. Mahabal, S.G. Djorgovski, A.J. Drake, M.J. Graham (Caltech), E.J. Christensen, D.C. Fuls, A.R. Gibbs, A.D. Grauer, J.A. Johnson, R.A. Kowalski, S.M. Larson, G.J. Leonard, R.G. Matheny, R.L. Seaman, F.C. Shelly (LPL). CSS/CRTS observed the following fields using 0.7m Schmidt telescope with 2.8x2.8 sq. degrees FOV with the standard cadence of 4 30-second images 10 minutes apart and did not find any outstanding EM-counterpart candidates to 19.5 mag (2.6-sigma). UT times mentioned below are of the first image of the sequence of 4. Total area covered is approximately 112 sq. degrees. Field RA (deg) Dec (deg) Date/Time (UT) ————————————————————————————— N26014 41.8963 26.8111 20151230 07:32:08.8 N29014 43.0087 29.6333 20151230 07:31:25.5 N26015 44.9996 26.8111 20151230 07:29:59.1 N29015 46.1946 29.6333 20151229 03:31:29.2 N32015 47.4542 32.4556 20151229 03:30:46.0 N35015 49.2450 35.2778 20151229 03:30:02.8 N29016 49.3804 29.6333 20151229 03:29:19.6 N38015 50.6796 38.1000 20151229 03:28:34.0 N32016 50.7271 32.4556 20151229 03:27:50.7 N35016 52.6412 35.2778 20151229 03:26:24.2 N38016 54.1746 38.1000 20151229 03:24:57.8 N35017 56.0375 35.2778 20151230 07:29:14.8 N38017 57.6696 38.1000 20151230 07:28:31.6 N40017 59.9996 40.9222 20151230 07:27:05.1 ————————————————————————————— //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18804 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: MASTER OTs 26.XII.2015 - 01.I.2016 DATE: 16/01/02 15:03:27 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, N.Tyurina, V.Kornilov, P.Balanutsa, A.Kuznetsov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute D.Buckley, S. Potter, M. Kotze South African Astronomical Observatory R. Rebolo, M. Serra-Ricart, G. Israelian, N.Lodiu The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias A. Tlatov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory N.M. Budnev, O. Gress, K. Ivanov Irkutsk State University V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, A.Gabovich Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk We covered northern and small part of the southern segment of LIGO/Virgo G211117 (~ 77.8% of the total probability and 99.3% of the Northen segment)) by MASTER-IAC, MASTER-SAAO, MASTER-Amur, MASTER-Tunka and MASTER-Kislovodsk) several times. The covering map is available at http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/G211117_master2.png The map of image limits is available at http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/G211117.png Below you can find the results of the week observations possible Gravitational Wave Burst LIGO/Virgo G211117 by MASTER Global Net: 1). MASTER OT J020906.21+013800.1 - possible OT in PGC Galaxy. Lipunov et al., GCN #18729 https://gw-astronomy.org/circs/18729.lvc3 D'Avanzo et al., GCN #18775 https://gw-astronomy.org/circs/18775.lvc3 I.Steele GCN #18782 https://gw-astronomy.org/circs/18782.lvc3 2). MASTER OT J034313.67+320044.9 - 19.0m flare young star is not connected with LIGO/Virgo G211117 event. MASTER-IAC auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 03h 43m 13.67s +32d 00m 44.9s on 2015-12-29.94159 UT. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/034313.67320044.9.png 3). MASTER OT J025756.02+285337.6 (PS15dpa, Smit et al., GCN 18786) - 19.5 mag PSN in SDSS9 galaxy MASTER-IAC auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 02h 57m 56.02s +28d 53m 37.6s on 2015-12-31.97184 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 19.5m (limit 20.3m). The OT is seen in 9 images. We have reference image without OT on 2015-11-09.06204 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 20.6m. There are 3 SDSS9 galaxies: J025756.06+285337.9 galaxy with offset 0.7 arcsec. J025756.14+285339.5 galaxy with offset 2.5 arcsec. J025755.75+285339.7 galaxy with offset 4.1 arcsec. Spectral observations are required. But its seems very far for Gravitational Wave Source. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/025756.02285337.6.png 4). MASTER OT J150113.71-734333.8 discovery - bright (14.5) high amplitude (>7.5mag) outburst. Dwarf Nova? MASTER-SAAO auto-detection system (http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8472 ) discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 15h 01m 13.71s -73d 43m 33.8s on 2015-12-25.016 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 14.5m (the limit was 18.0m). 5). MASTER OT J142741.38-330531.7 discovery - 14.9 flare BLAZAR with Gamma-ray counterpart 2 hours before trigger ( http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8472 ) MASTER-SAAO auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 14h 27m 41.38s -33d 05m 31.7s on 2015-12-26.07199 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 14.9m (limit 17.7m). We have reference image without OT on 2015-01-19.07569 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 19.4m. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/142741.38-330531.7_1.png 6.) MASTER OT J012034.47-042003.6 possible detection - 19.8 posible OT in SDSS9 galaxy, but its very far for GWB. MASTER-IAC auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 01h 20m 34.47s -04d 20m 03.6s on 2016-01-01.86469 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 19.8m (limit 20.5m). The OT is seen in 2 images. There is no minor planet at this place. We have reference image without OT on 2015-09-14.17252 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 21.2m. There is SDSS9 J012034.29-042001.9 galaxy with 3 arc sec offset. Spectral observations are required. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/012034.47-042003.6.png 7). MASTER OT J201539.32-693614.7 - Dwarf Nova (no coonection with GWB). MASTER-SAAO auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 20h 15m 39.32s -69d 36m 14.7s on 2016-01-01.79416 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 17.9m (limit 19.5m). We have reference image without OT on 2016-01-01.78390 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 18.6m. Spectral observations are required. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/201539.32-693614.7.png The map of our OTs is vailable at http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/G211117.png THis circular can be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18806 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: PESSTO classification of Pan-STARRS transients DATE: 16/01/02 18:47:44 GMT FROM: S. J. Smartt at Queens U Belfast C. Frohmaier, G. Dimitriadis, R. Firth,(Southampton), S. J. Smartt, K. W. Smith, D. Young, D. Wright, (QUB), E. Cappellaro (INAF, Padova) K. C. Chambers, M. E. Huber, A. S. B. Schultz (IfA, University of Hawaii), M. Coughlin (Harvard), L. Denneau, H. Flewelling, A. Heinze, R. Kotak (QUB), E. A. Magnier, N. Primak, A. Rest (STScI), A. Sherstyuk (IfA), B. Stalder (IfA), C. W. Stubbs (Harvard), J. Tonry, C. Waters (IfA) J. Anderson (ESO), K. Maguire (QUB), I. Manulis (Weizmann), C. Inserra (QUB), E. Kankare (QUB), M. Sullivan (Southampton), S. Valenti (UC Davis), O. Yaron (Weizmann), Further to the Pan-STARRS discovery of 44 transients in the northern localisation region of G211117 (Smith et al. GCN 18786), PESSTO, the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects (see Smartt et al. 2015, A&A, 579, 40 http://www.pessto.org) reports the following supernova classifications. All observations were performed on the ESO New Technology Telescope at La Silla on 2015 December 31, using EFOSC2 and Grism 13 (3985-9315A, 1 8A resolution). Classifications were done with SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) and GELATO (Harutyunyan et al., 2008, A&A, 488, 383). Classification spectra can be obtained from http://www.pessto.org (via WISeREP). Name RA (J2000) Dec (J2000) Disc. Date Disc Mag z Type Phase PS15dox 02:40:15.04 +22:32:12.1 2015-12-28 19.23 0.080 Ia +10 PS15dpa 02:57:56.02 +28:53:37.1 2015-12-28 19.51 0.079 Ia +9 PS15dpq 03:09:12.75 +27:31:16.9 2015-12-28 18.84 0.038 Ia +40 (91T-like) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18807 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Liverpool Telescope classification of EM candidates DATE: 16/01/02 18:50:49 GMT FROM: Chris Copperwheat at LJMU ArI We report the following spectroscopic observations and classifications of a number of the EM candidates reported by Cenko et al. in GCN 18762. All observations were obtained using the 2.0 metre Liverpool Telescope, La Palma by C.M. Copperwheat & I.A. Steele (Liverpool JMU) on behalf of a wider collaboration. iPTF-15fhp was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-01 at 00:58UT. The spectrum was of quite poor quality and SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) provides a tentative classification of a type Ia supernova approximately one week before peak. We have scheduled a second observation to test this classification. iPTF-15ffz was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-01 at 19:26UT. A number of emission lines are observed: including OII, H-beta and H-alpha with a common redshift of 0.070. This is consistent with the SDSS photometric redshift of the proposed host galaxy (z=0.075). We believe this target to be an AGN. iPTF-15fed was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-01 at 20:03UT. We do not see a point source distinct from the galactic emission in our acquisition image, however we estimate the limiting magnitude of this image is R~19.1, compared to the transient magnitude of 19.9 reported by iPTF. The spectrum we obtain is dominated by emission from the host galaxy. iPTF-15fib was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-01 at 20:39UT. We do not detect an object at those coordinates in our acquisition image. We estimate the limiting magnitude of this image is R~19.5, which is the same as the transient magnitude reported by iPTF. The spectrum we obtained was blank. Possibly this object has faded. iPTF-15ffk was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-01 at 21:16UT. Classification using SNID indicates the transient is a type Ia supernova with z = 0.108 -/+ 0.005 at 6.9 days past peak. This redshift is consistent with the SDSS photometric redshift of the proposed host galaxy (z=0.11). iPTF-15fgy was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-01 at 21:55UT. Classification using SNID indicates the transient is a type Ia supernova with z = 0.072 -/+ 0.006 at 16.8 days past peak. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18809 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: LOFAR follow-up DATE: 16/01/02 22:01:00 GMT FROM: Antonia Rowlinson at U van Amsterdam J. Broderick (ASTRON), A. Rowlinson (UvA, ASTRON), P.G. Jonker (SRON/RU), R.P. Fender (Oxford), R.A.M.J. Wijers (UvA), B.W. Stappers (Manchester), S. ter Veen (ASTRON), S. Ghosh (RU), A. Shulevski (ASTRON) report on behalf of the LOFAR Transients Key Science project On Jan 1, 2016, starting at 11:32 (UTC), we observed a large fraction of the localization error range of the Advanced LIGO trigger G211117 with the ILT (International Low-Frequency Array [LOFAR] Telescope). This is the first set of LOFAR observations of these fields. The fields will be revisited two times with the same exposures, on provisional time-scales of 1 and 3 months from now. The observations were obtained with the High-Band Antennas (HBA) at a centre frequency of 145 MHz (bandwidth 15.6 MHz). We used 6 simultaneous beams on the sky, where each beam has a field of view of approximately 12 deg^2 (beam FWHM 3.9 degrees). The beam centres are given below: Pointing 1 (starting at 11:32 UTC and 15:32 UTC) 1) 39.750000 19.433333 02:39:00.00 +19:26:00.0 2) 37.478042 19.814500 02:29:54.73 +19:48:52.2 3) 39.056375 21.630111 02:36:13.53 +21:37:48.4 4) 40.443625 17.236556 02:41:46.47 +17:14:11.6 5) 42.021958 19.052167 02:48:05.27 +19:03:07.8 6) 37.817000 17.209667 02:31:16.08 +17:12:34.8 Pointing 2 (starting at 12:02 UTC and 16:02 UTC) 1) 43.523458 24.012694 02:54:05.63 +24:00:45.7 2) 41.204125 24.163000 02:44:48.99 +24:09:46.8 3) 42.663792 26.172056 02:50:39.31 +26:10:19.4 4) 44.383125 21.853333 02:57:31.95 +21:51:12.0 5) 45.842792 23.862389 03:03:22.27 +23:51:44.6 6) 41.683000 21.657000 02:46:43.92 +21:39:25.2 Pointing 3 (starting at 12:32 UTC and 16:32 UTC) 1) 47.347500 28.815800 03:09:23.40 +28:48:56.9 2) 45.035000 29.249472 03:00:08.40 +29:14:58.1 3) 46.833417 31.111750 03:07:20.02 +31:06:42.3 4) 47.861583 26.519861 03:11:26.78 +26:31:11.5 5) 49.660000 28.382139 03:18:38.40 +28:22:55.7 6) 45.311208 26.473306 03:01:14.69 +26:28:23.9 Pointing 4 (starting at 13:02 UTC and 17:02 UTC) 1) 51.762750 33.469417 03:27:03.06 +33:28:09.9 2) 49.412000 33.897167 03:17:38.88 +33:53:49.8 3) 51.335000 35.820194 03:25:20.40 +35:49:12.7 4) 52.190500 31.118639 03:28:45.72 +31:07:07.1 5) 54.113500 33.041667 03:36:27.24 +33:02:30.0 6) 49.550083 31.096639 03:18:12.02 +31:05:47.9 Pointing 5 (starting at 13:32 UTC and 17:32 UTC) 1) 56.818083 37.934167 03:47:16.34 +37:56:03.0 2) 54.463958 38.555972 03:37:51.35 +38:33:21.5 3) 56.699333 40.366111 03:46:47.84 +40:21:58.0 4) 56.936833 35.502222 03:47:44.84 +35:30:08.0 5) 59.172208 37.312361 03:56:41.33 +37:18:44.5 6) 54.117958 35.824611 03:36:28.31 +35:49:28.6 Pointing 6 (starting at 14:02 UTC and 18:02 UTC) 1) 62.380833 42.438778 04:09:31.40 +42:26:19.6 2) 60.036333 43.290528 04:00:08.72 +43:17:25.9 3) 62.643042 44.919389 04:10:34.33 +44:55:09.8 4) 62.118625 39.958167 04:08:28.47 +39:57:29.4 5) 64.725333 41.587028 04:18:54.08 +41:35:13.3 6) 59.555833 40.151139 03:58:13.40 +40:09:04.1 Pointing 7 (starting at 14:32 UTC and 18:32 UTC) 1) 68.908792 46.437806 04:35:38.11 +46:26:16.1 2) 66.516750 47.358250 04:26:04.02 +47:21:29.7 3) 69.395792 48.954111 04:37:34.99 +48:57:14.8 4) 68.421792 43.921500 04:33:41.23 +43:55:17.4 5) 71.300833 45.517361 04:45:12.20 +45:31:02.5 6) 65.573417 44.433722 04:22:17.62 +44:26:01.4 Pointing 8 (starting at 15:02 UTC and 19:02 UTC) 1) 76.256792 50.093972 05:05:01.63 +50:05:38.3 2) 73.881750 51.253417 04:55:31.62 +51:15:12.3 3) 77.159833 52.577833 05:08:38.36 +52:34:40.2 4) 75.353750 47.610111 05:01:24.90 +47:36:36.4 5) 78.631833 48.934528 05:14:31.64 +48:56:04.3 6) 72.434875 48.392333 04:49:44.37 +48:23:32.4 The observations cover roughly 200 square degrees in total. Each field was observed for a total of 53 min (2 x 26.5 min) with 10s time resolution after pre-processing. Analysis is ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18811 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Gemini classification of 7 Pan-STARRS transients DATE: 16/01/03 21:29:22 GMT FROM: S. J. Smartt at Queens U Belfast K. C. Chambers, (IfA, University of Hawaii), T.-W. Chen (MPE), S. Smartt K. Smith, D. Wright, (Queen’s University Belfast), M. E. Huber, A. S. B. Schultz (IfA), M. Coughlin (Harvard), L. Denneau, H. Flewelling, A. Heinze, R. Kotak (QUB), E. A. Magnier, N. Primak, A. Rest (STScI), A. Sherstyuk (IfA), B. Stalder (IfA), C. W. Stubbs (Harvard), J. Tonry, C. Waters (IfA), D. Young (QUB) Further to GCN 18786, we report spectroscopic classification of 7 of the Pan-STARRS transients within the northern localisation region of G211117. Spectra were taken with GMOS on the Gemini North 8m telescope (program GN-2015B-Q-4, PI. K. Chambers), with the R150 grating, filter GG455, and 1 arcsec slit giving useful wavelength coverage 5000-9600 Angs. Typical exposure times were 600s, and the spectra are of high quality (S/N 20-100). The data were taken on the nights of 2015-12-30 and 2015-12-31 (with the MJDs of the exposures given in parentheses below) PS15dpn (57387.23) Has a very blue continuum, with three weak (but real) emission line features. These are tentatively identified as He I 5015.68, 5875.60 and H-alpha at z=0.175, although this is by no means certain as two of them coincide with the strong telluric absorptions. The transient was discovered on our first scan of the region on 2015-12-28 and is still rising, slowly (0.6 mag in 4 days, now at i=19.9). This is an unusual spectrum and further multi-wavelength observations are encouraged. Further spectra are planned by our team. PS15dow (57387.21): type Ib (z=0.05 +/- 0.01) at +9 (SN1999ex) to +30d (SN2008D) after maximum light. Therefore, explosion at least 20-40d before the GW trigger PS15dpc (57387.26): type II z=0.056, +15-25d after explosion. Therefore explosion 10-29d before the GW trigger. PS15dpl (57387.40): type Ia (z=0.03 +0.05/-0.015), at -8 to -11d before peak. Assuming 17+/-1 days for rise time of type Ia SNe, this suggests explosion 2015-12-21 to 2015-12-26. Which brackets the GW detection, within the uncertainties. However as an apparently normal SN Ia, it would appear unrelated. PS15dot (57386.30) : type II at z=0.149 (host galaxy redshift). The epoch is uncertain, but likely to be 10 to 20days after explosion. This is a bright type II at M_i ~ -18.5, but likely to have exploded 10 days before the GW detection. PS15dov (57386.32) : type II in UGC2836 (z=0.016702 host redshift). Fairly old and reddened type II, with prominent P-Cygni lines of H-alpha and Ca II. Likely more than 50 days old. Only 4-5 arcsec separation from the recorded coordinates (NED and CBET) for SN203ih and SN2001I. Exploded long before the GW trigger. PS15dpb (57386.43) : type II in UGC2828 (z=0.041045 host redshift).Fairly old type II, around 20-30 days after explosion. Therefore, a likely explosion epoch around 15-25d before G211117. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18812 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Liverpool Telescope classification of EM candidates DATE: 16/01/03 22:05:58 GMT FROM: Chris Copperwheat at LJMU ArI We report the following spectroscopic observations and classifications of two of the EM candidates reported by Cenko et al. in GCN 18762. All observations were obtained using the 2.0 metre Liverpool Telescope, La Palma by C.M. Copperwheat & I.A. Steele (Liverpool JMU) on behalf of a wider collaboration. iPTF-15ffh was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-02 at 19:29UT. We previously observed this target in twilight and did not detect the transient (GCN18791). The spectrum we obtained in this second visit does not contain any obvious features, and a visual inspection offers no clear classification. However, SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) provides a classification of a type Ia supernova with z = 0.076 -/+ 0.007 at 22.2 days after peak. This redshift is consistent with the spectroscopic redshift of the assumed host galaxy (0.06857). iPTF-15fhp was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-02 at 23:31UT. In GCN18807 we reported a previous epoch of observation for this transient in which we obtained a poor quality spectrum which SNID classified as a type Ia supernova approximately one week before peak. In this second visit the brightness of the target has not increased, and so we would rule out this initial tentative classification. Again, a classification is not obvious from a visual inspection of this second epoch, but SNID reports this object is a type Ia supernova with z=0.130 -/+ 0.007 at 4.1 days after peak. -- ------------------------------------------------------ C.M.Copperwheat Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University ------------------------------------------------------ http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------ Email: c.m.copperwheat@ljmu.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)151 231 2914 Fax: +44 (0)151 231 2921 ------------------------------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18813 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Fermi/LAT observations DATE: 16/01/04 06:56:39 GMT FROM: Giacomo Vianello at Stanford U/Fermi LAT G. Vianello (Stanford), M. Razzano (Univ. of Pisa), N. Omodei (Stanford), J. Racusin (NASA/GSFC), J. McEnery, (NASA/GSFC), M. Briggs (UAH), E. Burns (UAH), V. Connaughton (USRA), A. Goldstein (NASA/MSFC), P. Jenke (UAH), C. Wilson-Hodge (NASA/MSFC), B. Zhang (UAH) We report on the search for a gamma-ray counterpart for the LIGO/VIRGO candidate G211117 in the data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Our search covered the regions of the LIGO/VIRGO "Bayestar" sky map having a probability greater than 90%. We performed a search for a gamma-ray counterpart above 100 MeV on two time intervals: a) from -100 s to 1000 s after the GW trigger, and b) from -100 s to 10000 s after the trigger. Time scale "a" is the typical time scale for a search for short GRBs, while the second time scale is more typical for long GRBs. At the time of the GW trigger Fermi was operating in normal survey mode. During the time interval "a" around half of the North region and almost all the South region were inside the LAT FoV at some point. During the time interval "b" both regions were covered in their entirety. A counts map of the full sky relative to this second interval can be seen at: https://gracedb.ligo.org/apiweb/events/G211117/files/fermi_sky_map.png We found no significant excess above a significance of 3 sigma post-trial. The Fermi-LAT is a pair conversion telescope designed to cover the energy band from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. It is the product of an international collaboration between NASA and DOE in the U.S. and many scientific institutions across France, Italy, Japan and Sweden. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18822 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: INAF TNG follow-up of Kanata telescope candidate DATE: 16/01/04 16:26:15 GMT FROM: Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB P. D'Avanzo, A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), E. Brocato (INAF-OAR), M. Branchesi (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), E. Cappellaro (INAF-OAPd), L.Amati (INAF-IASF Bo), L. A. Antonelli, (INAF-OAR), P. Astone (INFN-Roma), S. Campana, S. Covino ((INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (INAF-ASDC), F. Getman (INAF-OAC), G. Giuffrida (INAF-ASDC), A.Grado (INAF-OAC), G.Greco (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), L. Limatola (INAF-OAC), M. Lisi (INAF-OAR), S. Marinoni, P. Marrese (INAF-ASDC), L. Nicastro, E. Palazzi (INAF-IAFS Bo), E. Pian (SNS-Pisa), S. Piranomonte, L. Pulone (INAF-OAR), F. Ricci (Sapienza University), G. Stratta (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB), V. Testa (INAF-OAR), L. Tomasella (INAF-OAPd), V. Lorenzi, A. Garcia de Gurtubai Escudero (INAF-TNG) on behalf of the INAF Gravitational Astronomy group and M. Yoshida (HASC, Hiroshima Univ.) on behalf of the J-GEM collaboration report: We observed the field of the optical/NIR candidate reported by Itoh et al. (GCN Circ. 18742) with the 3.6m Italian TNG telescope (Canary Islands, Spain), equipped with the DOLORES camera in imaging mode starting on 2015 Dec 29.9292 UT. No object is detected at the reported position of this optical/NIR candidate down to a 3sigma limiting magnitude i~23 (AB; calibrated against SDSS stars in the field). A bright (i~17.6 AB mag) object, not present in the SDSS, is detected at RA, Dec (J2000): 01:56:23.75, +04:33:48.1. As suggested by Cenko et al. (GCN Circ. 18762) our findings are consistent with this object and the optical/NIR candidate reported by Itoh et al. (GCN Circ. 18742) being the minor planet 2606 Odessa. We acknowledge the use of the Minor Planet Center Ephemeris Service. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18824 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Summary of Pan-STARRS transients DATE: 16/01/04 17:12:47 GMT FROM: S. J. Smartt at Queens U Belfast S. Smartt ((Queens University Belfast), K. C. Chambers, (IfA, University of Hawaii), T.-W. Chen (MPE),K. Smith, D. Wright (QUB) , M. E. Huber, A. S. B. Schultz (IfA), M. Coughlin (Harvard), L. Denneau, H. Flewelling, A. Heinze, R. Kotak (QUB), E. A. Magnier, N. Primak, A. Rest (STScI), A. Sherstyuk (IfA), B. Stalder (IfA), C. W. Stubbs (Harvard), J. Tonry, C. Waters (IfA), D. Young (QUB) Further to Smith et al. (GCN 18811), Chambers et al. (18786), Frohmaier et al. (18806) we report three further spectra from Gemini and a full summary of targets from all spectra, cross-matching and Pan-STARRS data now available. Targets are summarised as likely extragalactic transients, stellar variables, and AGN/QSO variables below. Three targets were observed with Gemini GMOS (GN-2015B-Q-4, PI. K. Chambers), with the R400 grating (4900-8000Angs) on 2016-01-01 PS15don is a type Ia, z=0.16, at peak, PS15doy is a type Ia, z=0.19, probably 1991T-like at one weak post peak PS15dpe is a type Ia, z=0.057 at about 10 days after peak. Hence all of these exploded well before G211117, and as apparently normal Ia SNe are unrelated. The only unusual target to date is PS15dpn (see Chambers et al. GCN 18811). Summary table of extragalactic transients (30) : Name RA (J2000) Dec (J2000) Disc. Date Disc. MJD Disc Mag PS15dcq 03 22 55.83 +34 59 23.6 20151228.29 57384.29 19.99 (1) iPTF15fgy, SN Ia PS15dov 03 43 57.36 +39 17 43.7 20151228.32 57384.32 19.73 SN II, GMOS PS15dot 02 11 55.69 +13 28 17.8 20151228.34 57384.34 20.97 SN II, GMOS PS15coh 02 15 58.45 +12 14 13.6 20151228.34 57384.34 17.72 (2) ASASSN-15rw (SN Ia) PS15dow 02 19 42.20 +14 09 54.7 20151228.34 57384.34 20.22 SN Ib, GMOS PS15csf 02 26 02.24 +17 03 40.4 20151228.35 57384.35 18.68 (2) MASTER OT J022037.36+170217.5, LSQ15bwe (old) PS15dom 02 34 45.62 +18 20 37.7 20151228.35 57384.35 19.01 (2) PSNJ02344555+1820390, iPTF15fdv (old) PS15don 02 37 11.44 +19 03 20.2 20151228.35 57384.35 20.47 SN Ia, GMOS PS15dox 02 40 15.05 +22 32 12.1 20151228.38 57384.38 19.23 SN Ia, PESSTO PS15doy 02 47 54.16 +21 46 24.0 20151228.38 57384.38 20.75 SN Ia, GMOS PS15dpq 03 09 12.74 +27 31 16.9 20151228.39 57384.39 18.84 SN Ia, PESSTO (iPTF15fel) PS15dpa 02 57 56.02 +28 53 37.1 20151228.40 57384.40 19.51 SN Ia, PESSTO PS15dpe 05 44 42.66 +52 24 57.9 20151228.43 57384.43 19.44 SN Ia, GMOS PS15dpl 05 47 45.39 +53 36 32.4 20151228.43 57384.43 19.34 SN Ia GMOS PS15dpn 02 32 59.75 +18 38 07.0 20151229.23 57385.23 20.69 see GCN 18811 PS15dpf 02 49 32.57 +21 47 09.4 20151229.24 57385.24 20.69 PS15doz 02 53 41.68 +27 29 57.8 20151229.25 57385.25 20.69 PS15dpc 03 55 46.16 +38 52 49.6 20151229.27 57385.27 20.95 SN II, GMOS PS15dqc 05 51 13.43 +52 28 18.7 20151229.29 57385.29 21.16 PS15cvo 02 20 37.39 +17 02 17.9 20151229.31 57385.31 20.45 (2) MASTER and PSST detections in Nov 2015 PS15dpz 02 40 33.01 +23 00 10.8 20151229.32 57385.32 21.15 PS15dpb 03 42 23.40 +39 14 40.4 20151229.36 57385.36 20.20 SN II, GMOS PS15dou 06 03 38.73 +54 41 12.1 20151229.56 57385.56 20.20 PS15dpx 06 04 35.54 +53 35 25.8 20151229.56 57385.56 20.76 PS15dpt 02 07 34.96 +11 03 25.2 20151230.22 57386.22 20.64 PS15dpy 02 28 22.75 +13 59 19.3 20151230.22 57386.22 21.31 PS15dpu 02 40 41.35 +16 49 52.0 20151230.22 57386.22 17.26 ASASSN-15un (3), spectrum scheduled on LT PS15dqa 02 59 41.20 +25 14 12.2 20151230.24 57386.24 20.93 in NGC1156 at 7Mpc (GCN18811) PS15dqe 06 05 26.88 +54 09 11.3 20151230.37 57386.37 21.51 PS16bp 03 05 29.46 +24 46 05.0 20160102.39 57389.39 17.45 spectrum scheduled on LT Notes (1) Old SN from PSST (GCN. 18811) Observed by Copperwheat et al. (GCN18807), type Ia at 16d after peak. (2) Old SNe known before G211118 (3) ASASSN-15un : discovered on 2015-12-28.22 by Masi et al. (ATel 8470) not yet classified. In Mrk 1182, d=119 Mpc. Spectrum now scheduled on LT. On closer inspection of multi-epoch Pan-STARRS data and the reference images, we find that the following previously reported transients from Smith et al. (GCN18786) are most likely not extragalactic transients : one is a slow mover (not a recorded minor planet) and 12 are most likely faint stellar variables (including 2 already report as stellar in GCN 18786) Slow mover : PS15dpr 03 16 12.16 +31 04 01.3 20151229.46 57385.46 19.78 Likely stellar variables : these objects either are close to the Galactic plane (l,b coordinates given below), and/or do not have detections spanning multiple nights. Name RA (J2000) Dec (J2000) Disc. Date Disc. MJD Disc Mag l b PS15dpm 06 19 54.15 +54 18 10.3 20151229.56 57385.56 20.48 160.2 17.4 PS15dpv 03 40 02.91 +36 07 52.2 20151230.43 57386.43 20.93 157.1 -15.3 PS15dps 03 22 31.49 +34 36 36.6 20151229.43 57385.43 20.41 155.1 -18.6 PS15dpk 05 09 35.10 +50 09 08.7 20151229.38 57385.38 19.66 158.5 6.0 PS15dpj 05 08 12.38 +51 37 10.2 20151228.44 57384.44 18.45 157.2 6.7 PS15dpd 05 09 58.63 +50 47 09.4 20151228.44 57384.44 20.34 158.0 6.4 PS15dpw 04 10 16.52 +43 35 22.8 20151230.27 57386.27 19.29 156.7 -5.9 PS15dpg 03 17 18.88 +32 20 06.9 20151229.41 57385.41 20.86 155.5 -21.1 PS15dph 03 24 15.04 +30 56 20.1 20151229.46 57385.46 20.17 157.7 -21.4 PS15dpi 03 36 41.65 +35 57 56.4 20151228.52 57384.52 17.62 RR Lyrae; CSS J033641.5+355756 PS15dpp 03 00 39.86 +28 15 25.4 20151228.40 57384.40 20.63 154.7 -26.5 PS15dqb 03 28 34.85 +31 59 08.2 20151230.43 57386.43 19.93 157.8 -20.0 The following two transients are probable faint AGN/QSO (as previously reported in Smith et al. GCN 18786) PS15dop 03 17 29.58 +29 34 09.2 20151228.40 57384.40 20.01 probable AGN PS15dpo 02 59 49.56 +25 10 30.4 20151229.25 57385.25 20.55 probable AGN/QSO //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18832 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Liverpool Telescope classification of EM candidates DATE: 16/01/05 16:48:43 GMT FROM: Chris Copperwheat at LJMU ArI We report the following spectroscopic observations and classifications of two of the EM candidates reported by Cenko et al. in GCN 18762. All observations were obtained using the 2.0 metre Liverpool Telescope, La Palma by C.M. Copperwheat, I.A. Steele & A. Piascik (Liverpool JMU) on behalf of a wider collaboration. iPTF-15ffm was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-03 at 19:49UT. Using SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) we classify this transient as a type Ia supernova with z = 0.098 at 30 days after peak. iPTF-15fhd was observed with the SPRAT spectrograph on 2016-01-03 at 21:02UT. Using SNID we classify this transient as a type Ia supernova with z = 0.088 at 13 days after peak. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18834 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Further Swift-XRT sources DATE: 16/01/06 09:33:46 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea (PSU), S.D. Barthelmy (NASA/GSFC), D.N. Burrows (PSU), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), S.B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), P. Giommi (ASI), F.E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), J.A. Nousek (PSU), P.T. O'Brien (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), D.M. Palmer (LANL), M. Perri (ASDC), J.L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC), M.H. Siegel (PSU), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift team: Swift has performed a series of 76 observations of galaxies (from the GWGC catalogue) within the aLIGO error region for the aLIGO trigger G211117, using the 'bayestar' GW localisation map. The observations currently span from 140 ks to 914 ks after the aLIGO trigger, and cover 8.6 sq degrees on the sky (corrected for overlaps). Since the last Swift GCN, we have detected 2 X-ray sources, these are either new detections, or have been given a higher 'rank' than in the last circular. Each source is assigned a rank of 1-4 which describes how likely it is to be related to the GW trigger, with 1 being the most likely and 4 being the least likely. The ranks are described at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ranks.php. We have found: * 0 sources of rank 1 * 0 sources of rank 2 * 1 source of rank 3 * 1 source of rank 4 In addition, we observed the location of the source PS15dqa (from Smartt et al., GCN Circ. 18824), an optical transient in NGC 1156 at a distance of just 7 Mpc. No X-ray emission was detected at the location of PS15dqa to a 3-sigma upper limit of 4.1e-3 ct/sec, corresponding to a flux of 1.8e-13 erg/cm^2/s. We assumed a power-law spectrum with NH=3e20 cm^2, and photon index (Gamma)=1.7 RANK 3 sources ============== These are uncatalogued X-ray sources, however they are not brighter than previous upper limits, so do not stand out as likely counterparts to the GW trigger. Source 53: ============= RA: 44.9257 ( = 02h 59m 42.17s) J2000 Dec: +25.2129 ( = +25d 12' 46.4") J2000 Error: +5.8 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.5e-03 +/- 7.9e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 6.3e-14 +/- 3.4e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 3.0e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. RANK 4 sources ============== These are catalogued X-ray sources, showing no signs of outburst compared to previous observations, so they are not likely to be related to the GW trigger. Source 54: ============= RA: 202.5319 ( = 13h 30m 7.66s) J2000 Dec: -20.9364 ( = -20d 56' 11.0") J2000 Error: +6.0 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 2.0e-02 +/- 7.3e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 8.5e-13 +/- 3.1e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 1SXPS J133007.7-205619 in the 1SXPS catalogue Separation: 8.4" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 1.6e-02 +/- 1.6e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 6.8e-13 +/- 6.9e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) so the source is 0.5-sigma above the catalogued flux. There is no evidence for fading. There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. A SIMBAD object `[RKV2003] QSO J1330-2056 abs 0.84992' is 5.3" away. There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius. This circular is an official product of the Swift team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18835 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: MASTER OT in ESO138-006 galaxy DATE: 16/01/06 09:55:27 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, N.Tyurina Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute D.Buckley, S. Potter, M. Kotze, South African Astronomical Observatory behalf of the MASTER collaboration. We continue the inspection of the northern and southern segments of the LIGO/Virgo G2111170 event. We found one PSN in southern segment last night. MASTER-SAAO auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 16h 54m 20.77s -61d 52m 58.0s on 2016-01-06.06807 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 16.9m (limit 19.7m). The OT is seen in 10 images. There is no minor planet at this place. We have reference image without OT on 2015-07-15.88669 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 20.1m. OT has offset is about 9.1E and 9.9N arcsecs from center of the ESO0138-006 galaxy. The distance d ~= 64 Mpc. Spectral observations are required. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/165420.77-615258.0.png This circular can be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18840 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam follow-up observation DATE: 16/01/08 04:32:18 GMT FROM: Michitoshi Yoshida at J-GEM Michitoshi Yoshida, Yousuke Utsumi (Hiroshima Univ.), Tomoki Morokuma, Kentaro Motohara (Univ. of Tokyo), Masaomi Tanaka, Fumiaki Nakata, Tsuyoshi Terai, Francois Finet (NAOJ), Nozomu Tominaga (Konan Univ.) on behalf of J-GEM collaboration We report optical imaging follow-up observations for a part of the northern skymap regions of G211117 with Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) attached to 8.2-m Subaru Telescope. HSC has a circular field-of-view whose area is 1.7 deg^2. We performed z- and i-band imaging observations on 2016-01-06 UT. The exposure times were 60 sec and 45--50 sec for z-band and i-band, respectively. We covered 50 deg^2 around the high probability area in the northern skymap region of G211117 with 50 pointings of HSC. The 5-sigma limiting AB magnitudes are about 23--23.5 mag and 23.5--24 mag for z-band and i-band, respectively. The observed ares are listed below. # datetime(UT) RA DEC filter exptime 2016-01-07T10:24:04.9 04:40:57.4 +47:21:12 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:22:45.7 04:41:08.8 +47:21:43 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:21:25.8 04:36:06.7 +46:34:03 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:20:06.9 04:36:17.9 +46:34:34 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:18:49.2 04:31:25.9 +45:46:47 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:17:28.0 04:31:37.0 +45:47:18 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:16:10.3 04:26:54.4 +44:59:23 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:14:52.7 04:27:05.4 +44:59:54 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:13:31.5 04:22:31.9 +44:11:50 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:12:12.7 04:22:42.7 +44:12:21 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:10:54.0 04:18:17.8 +43:24:09 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:09:33.7 04:18:28.4 +43:24:40 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:08:16.6 04:16:37.8 +44:11:50 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:06:55.4 04:16:48.6 +44:12:21 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:05:37.1 04:14:11.8 +42:36:20 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:04:20.1 04:14:22.3 +42:36:51 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:03:03.1 04:12:29.4 +43:24:09 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:01:42.5 04:12:40.1 +43:24:40 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T10:00:25.1 04:10:13.5 +41:48:22 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:59:04.7 04:10:23.8 +41:48:53 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:57:47.7 04:08:28.9 +42:36:20 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:56:29.8 04:08:39.4 +42:36:51 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:55:12.4 04:04:36.0 +41:48:22 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:53:55.2 04:04:46.3 +41:48:53 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:52:37.3 04:01:47.3 +41:00:37 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:51:19.9 04:01:57.5 +41:01:08 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:50:02.2 03:58:58.6 +40:13:26 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:48:44.3 03:59:08.7 +40:13:57 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:47:27.1 03:56:09.9 +39:26:48 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:46:09.0 03:56:19.9 +39:27:19 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:44:51.8 03:53:21.1 +40:13:26 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:43:29.6 03:53:31.2 +40:13:57 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:42:12.9 03:53:21.2 +38:40:40 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:40:55.3 03:53:31.1 +38:41:12 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:39:37.2 03:50:32.5 +37:55:02 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:38:20.4 03:50:42.3 +37:55:33 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:37:02.7 03:50:32.4 +39:26:48 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:35:44.5 03:50:42.4 +39:27:19 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:34:19.7 03:47:43.8 +37:09:53 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:33:02.7 03:47:53.5 +37:10:24 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:31:45.5 03:47:43.7 +38:40:40 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:30:27.7 03:47:53.6 +38:41:12 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:29:09.9 03:44:55.0 +37:55:02 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:27:53.0 03:45:04.8 +37:55:34 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:25:55.2 02:43:03.3 +21:22:40 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:24:37.0 02:43:11.6 +21:23:11 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:23:18.8 02:45:52.0 +22:01:12 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:22:01.7 02:46:00.3 +22:01:43 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:20:44.1 02:48:40.7 +22:39:55 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:19:24.5 02:48:49.1 +22:40:26 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:18:04.2 02:51:29.4 +23:18:49 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:16:47.2 02:51:37.9 +23:19:20 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:15:29.9 02:54:18.2 +23:57:55 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:14:11.0 02:54:26.6 +23:58:26 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:12:50.7 02:54:18.1 +25:16:42 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:11:30.7 02:54:26.7 +25:17:13 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:10:12.7 02:57:06.9 +24:37:12 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:08:54.8 02:57:15.4 +24:37:43 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:07:37.1 02:57:06.9 +25:56:25 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:06:17.6 02:57:15.4 +25:56:56 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:04:58.1 02:59:55.6 +26:36:21 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:03:40.7 03:00:04.2 +26:36:52 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:02:22.2 02:59:55.6 +25:16:42 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T09:01:04.9 03:00:04.2 +25:17:13 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:59:47.6 03:02:44.3 +27:16:31 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:58:29.5 03:02:53.0 +27:17:02 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:57:10.5 03:02:44.4 +25:56:25 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:55:53.8 03:02:52.9 +25:56:56 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:54:36.9 03:05:33.0 +27:56:56 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:53:19.1 03:05:41.8 +27:57:27 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:52:02.3 03:05:33.1 +26:36:21 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:50:45.7 03:05:41.7 +26:36:52 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:49:28.8 03:08:21.8 +28:37:36 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:48:09.5 03:08:30.6 +28:38:07 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:46:50.0 03:11:10.5 +29:18:32 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:45:33.7 03:11:19.3 +29:19:03 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:44:16.8 03:13:59.2 +29:59:44 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:42:57.3 03:14:08.1 +30:00:16 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:41:17.4 03:22:25.3 +33:30:21 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:40:00.3 03:22:34.5 +33:30:52 HSC-i 45.0 2016-01-07T08:38:33.9 03:16:47.9 +30:41:14 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:37:11.5 03:16:56.9 +30:41:45 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:35:15.4 03:42:06.3 +37:09:52 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:33:53.1 03:42:16.0 +37:10:24 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:31:49.1 03:19:36.6 +31:23:02 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:30:26.3 03:19:45.7 +31:23:33 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:29:03.3 03:22:25.3 +32:05:08 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:27:41.7 03:22:34.5 +32:05:39 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:26:19.6 03:25:14.1 +32:47:34 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:24:56.4 03:25:23.2 +32:48:05 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:22:53.2 03:39:17.6 +36:25:09 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:21:30.9 03:39:27.2 +36:25:40 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:19:34.2 03:28:02.8 +33:30:21 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:18:12.1 03:28:12.0 +33:30:52 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:16:50.1 03:30:51.5 +34:13:28 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:15:23.8 03:31:00.8 +34:13:59 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:14:01.7 03:36:28.9 +35:40:52 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:12:37.4 03:36:38.4 +35:41:23 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:11:10.5 03:33:40.2 +34:56:58 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T08:09:48.7 03:33:49.6 +34:57:29 HSC-i 50.0 2016-01-07T07:37:39.2 02:43:03.3 +21:22:39 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:36:06.1 02:43:11.6 +21:23:11 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:34:32.4 02:45:52.0 +22:01:12 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:32:59.8 02:46:00.3 +22:01:43 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:31:27.7 02:48:40.7 +22:39:55 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:29:54.8 02:48:49.1 +22:40:26 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:28:22.5 02:51:29.4 +23:18:49 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:26:50.8 02:51:37.9 +23:19:20 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:25:17.8 02:54:18.2 +23:57:55 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:23:45.0 02:54:26.6 +23:58:26 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:22:12.6 02:54:18.1 +25:16:42 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:20:39.9 02:54:26.7 +25:17:13 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:19:06.7 02:57:06.9 +24:37:12 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:17:35.1 02:57:15.4 +24:37:43 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:15:58.3 02:57:06.9 +25:56:25 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:14:26.3 02:57:15.4 +25:56:56 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:12:11.1 03:16:47.9 +30:41:14 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:10:37.4 03:16:56.9 +30:41:45 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:08:20.8 03:42:06.3 +37:09:52 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:06:48.7 03:42:16.0 +37:10:24 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:04:30.3 03:19:36.6 +31:23:02 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:02:58.4 03:19:45.7 +31:23:33 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T07:01:26.4 03:22:25.3 +32:05:08 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:59:52.6 03:22:34.5 +32:05:39 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:58:18.9 03:25:14.1 +32:47:34 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:56:45.3 03:25:23.2 +32:48:05 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:54:42.7 03:39:17.6 +36:25:09 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:53:10.3 03:39:27.2 +36:25:40 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:51:05.6 03:28:02.8 +33:30:21 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:49:32.8 03:28:12.0 +33:30:52 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:48:01.3 03:30:51.5 +34:13:28 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:46:23.9 03:31:00.8 +34:13:59 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:44:51.8 03:36:28.9 +35:40:52 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:43:19.1 03:36:38.4 +35:41:23 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:41:46.4 03:33:40.2 +34:56:58 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:40:14.5 03:33:49.6 +34:57:29 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:38:03.5 04:40:57.4 +47:21:12 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:36:23.0 04:41:08.8 +47:21:43 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:34:51.1 04:36:06.7 +46:34:03 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:33:19.2 04:36:17.9 +46:34:34 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:31:45.8 04:31:25.9 +45:46:47 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:30:12.9 04:31:37.0 +45:47:18 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:28:40.4 04:26:54.4 +44:59:22 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:27:08.3 04:27:05.4 +44:59:54 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:25:36.0 04:22:31.9 +44:11:50 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:24:03.2 04:22:42.7 +44:12:21 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:22:29.7 04:18:17.8 +43:24:09 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:20:58.4 04:18:28.5 +43:24:40 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:19:17.3 04:16:37.8 +44:11:50 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:17:44.4 04:16:48.6 +44:12:21 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:16:09.9 04:14:11.8 +42:36:20 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:14:38.4 04:14:22.3 +42:36:51 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:13:05.3 04:12:29.4 +43:24:09 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:11:31.3 04:12:40.1 +43:24:40 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:09:52.1 04:10:13.5 +41:48:22 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:08:19.6 04:10:23.8 +41:48:53 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:06:46.2 04:08:28.9 +42:36:20 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:05:12.9 04:08:39.4 +42:36:51 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:03:40.6 04:04:36.0 +41:48:22 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:02:08.0 04:04:46.3 +41:48:53 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T06:00:35.4 04:01:47.3 +41:00:37 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:59:01.4 04:01:57.5 +41:01:08 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:57:29.8 03:58:58.6 +40:13:26 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:55:58.0 03:59:08.7 +40:13:57 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:54:25.0 03:56:09.9 +39:26:48 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:52:52.3 03:56:19.9 +39:27:19 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:51:20.6 03:53:21.1 +40:13:26 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:49:48.5 03:53:31.2 +40:13:57 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:48:15.7 03:53:21.2 +38:40:40 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:46:43.5 03:53:31.1 +38:41:12 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:45:11.9 03:50:32.5 +37:55:02 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:43:39.4 03:50:42.3 +37:55:33 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:42:07.1 03:50:32.4 +39:26:48 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:40:33.7 03:50:42.4 +39:27:19 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:39:02.1 03:47:43.8 +37:09:53 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:37:30.7 03:47:53.5 +37:10:24 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:35:57.1 03:47:43.7 +38:40:40 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:34:23.9 03:47:53.6 +38:41:12 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:32:52.3 03:44:55.0 +37:55:02 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:31:20.4 03:45:04.8 +37:55:33 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:29:09.5 02:59:55.6 +26:36:21 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:27:37.0 03:00:04.2 +26:36:52 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:26:02.7 02:59:55.6 +25:16:42 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:24:25.8 03:00:04.2 +25:17:13 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:22:19.8 03:02:44.3 +27:16:31 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:20:47.7 03:02:53.0 +27:17:02 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:19:15.3 03:02:44.4 +25:56:25 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:17:43.7 03:02:53.0 +25:56:56 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:16:09.3 03:05:33.0 +27:56:56 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:14:36.2 03:05:41.8 +27:57:27 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:13:02.9 03:05:33.1 +26:36:21 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:11:30.9 03:05:41.7 +26:36:52 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:09:56.0 03:08:21.8 +28:37:36 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:08:21.3 03:08:30.6 +28:38:07 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:06:49.9 03:11:10.5 +29:18:32 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:05:16.2 03:11:19.3 +29:19:03 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:03:43.6 03:13:59.2 +29:59:45 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:02:11.3 03:14:08.1 +30:00:15 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T05:00:35.3 03:22:25.3 +33:30:21 HSC-z 60.0 2016-01-07T04:59:03.6 03:22:34.5 +33:30:52 HSC-z 60.0 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18842 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: VISTA imaging DATE: 16/01/08 10:57:23 GMT FROM: Nial Tanvir at U of Leicester N. R. Tanvir, K. Wiersema, P. T. O'Brien, J. Osborne, P. Evans (U. Leicester), A. J. Levan, D. Steeghs, J. Lyman (U. Warwick), J. Fynbo, D. Malesani, J. Hjorth, D. Perley, B. Milvang-Jensen, D. Watson (DARK/NBI), S. Fairhurst, P. Sutton (U. Cardiff), I. Mandel (U. Birmingham), M. Irwin, C. Gonzalez-Fernandez, R. McMahon, E. Gonzalez-Solares (U. Cambridge), E. Pian (SNS-Pisa), E. Palazzi (INAF-IAFS Bo), D. White (U. Edinburgh), S. Schulze (PUC, MAS), Z. Cano (U. Iceland), A. de Ugarte-Postigo, C. Thoene (IAA-CSIC) report: We initiated a sequence of near-infrared imaging observations with the 4m ESO VISTA telescope at Cerro Paranal, Chile, to map the same northern part of the reported error region that was surveyed by VST (Grado et al. GCN 18734). Specifically the field centres of our sub-regions are: 02:29:55.20 +16:13:12 02:38:02.21 +19:13:12 02:46:35.71 +22:12:34 02:59:40.80 +25:13:12 03:06:55.13 +28:13:12 03:18:23.71 +31:13:12 and each sub-region is tiled to cover roughly 3x3 degrees. We are observing in the Y, J and Ks bands, with each pixel exposed for 60s. The observations began on 1 Jan 2016, but will take several more nights to complete given the short visibility of the fields. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18843 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Pi of the Sky observations DATE: 16/01/08 12:11:37 GMT FROM: Adam Zadrozny at Pi of the Sky LIGO/Virgo G211117: Pi of the Sky observations A. wiek (NCBJ), A. F. arnecki (UW), A. Mankiewicz (CFT PAS), A. Zadrony (NCBJ) on behalf of the Pi of the Sky On night starting 29rd of December we started observing areas connected to G211117. Due to weather conditions, observations related to G211117 could only start on night 29th of December. We mostly focus on imaging arc spanning from 0h - 10h. Observations are made from observatory Pi of the Sky North observatory INTA. The observations are performed using cameras with wide-band White filter. Exposition time used is 10s and we take at least 10 consecutive exposures for each field, resulting in the expected limiting brightness of 12 mag. Each exposition taken cover area of approximately plus/minus 10 deg from coordinates set on center of the frame. For observations related to G211117 we are using following pointings (These fields cover about 30% of the area of the alert): 1) 29.9186 -19.8295 2) 35.003 19.7683 3) 143.326 76.3277 4) 8.97431 -1.97974 5) 48.9859 -1.77356 6) 56.2522 37.8203 7) 83.2047 59.9766 8) 30.9354 -1.62311 9) 33.1534 37.7411 10) 78.3588 37.7796 11) 120.202 60.2756 12) 9.18673 -20.2795 Each image taken covers approximately 400 square degrees. We are currently analyzing taken images. If weather permits we will continue scanning this area. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18846 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: VLA follow-up DATE: 16/01/09 01:01:01 GMT FROM: Nipuni Palliyaguru at TTU Nipuni Palliyaguru (TTU) and Alessandra Corsi (TTU) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We imaged the position of the Pan-STARRS transient PS15dpn (Chambers et al. GCN 18811); RA(J2000)= 02h 32m 59.75s Dec(J2000)=+18d 38' 07.0s''), located in the error region of LIGO/Virgo G211117 (LVC et al., GCN 18728), with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The observations started on 08 Jan 04:11:49 UT, ended on 08 Jan 05:11:41 UT, and were carried out in C-band (central frequency of about 6 GHz) with the VLA in its DnC configuration. Analysis is ongoing and further observations are planned. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18847 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: PESSTO classification of MASTER J165420.77-615258 DATE: 16/01/09 14:14:14 GMT FROM: S. J. Smartt at Queens U Belfast C. Frohmaier, G. Dimitriadis, R. Firth (Southampton), E. Cappellaro (INAF, Padova) M. Dennefeld (IAP, UPMC), C. Inserra (QUB), E. Kankare (QUB), K. Maguire, S. J. Smartt (QUB), K. W. Smith (QUB), M. Sullivan (Southampton), S. Valenti (UC Davis), O. Yaron (Weizmann), D. Young (QUB), I. Manulis (Weizmann) Further to Lipunov et al.’s discovery of a transient by MASTER in ESO 138-006 which is in the localisation region of G211117 (see GCN 18835), at (RA, Dec) = 16h 54m 20.77s -61d 52m 58.0s on 2016-01-06.06807 UT. PESSTO, the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects (see Smartt et al. 2015, A&A, 579, 40 http://www.pessto.org) reports a classification spectrum. The transient is a type II supernova, most likely a II-P, at +30d, with a redshift (z=0.018) consistent with that of the likely host (ESO 138-006). Observations were performed on the ESO New Technology Telescope at La Silla on 2016 Jan 08, using EFOSC2 and Grism 13 (3985-9315A, 18A resolution). Classifications was done with SNID (Blondin & Tonry, 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024) and GELATO (Harutyunyan et al., 2008, A&A, 488, 383). Classification spectrum can be obtained from http://www.pessto.org (via WISeREP). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18848 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: iPTF Observations of PS15dpn DATE: 16/01/09 14:26:51 GMT FROM: Brad Cenko at NASA/GSFC S. B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC), M. M. Kasliwal (Caltech), L. P. Singer (NASA/GSFC), and V. Bhalerao (IUCAA) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We report here on P48 and Gemini observations of the transient PS15dpn (Chambers et al., GCN 18811). PS15dpn was detected by the Palomar 48 inch telescope in R-band images obtained at 2:13 UT on 2015 December 28, with a magnitude of R = 20.8 +/- 0.2 mag. The transient, internally dubbed iPTF15fgl, was not reported in our previous list of candidate counterparts (Cenko et al., GCN 18762) because of marginal evidence for excess flux at this location in a g-band image obtained on 2015 December 17. Further analysis of these pre-trigger observations could not confirm this excess - thus we have no evidence for variability of this object prior to the LIGO trigger. We obtained an optical spectrum of PS15dpn with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) mounted on the 8 m Gemini North telescope beginning at 5:02 UT on 2016 January 6. The source is (still) dominated by a blue continuum, with strong narrow emission lines corresponding to H-alpha and N II at a redshift of 0.174. This is largely similar to the spectrum reported by Chambers et al. (GCN 18811), and we can confirm their tentative redshift of this source. However, we do not see any evidence for He I lines in our spectrum. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18849 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Swift observations of PS15dpn DATE: 16/01/09 17:52:48 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans and K.L. Page (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift team: On 2016 Jan 7 at 15:54 Swift began observations of the transient PS15dpn (Chambers et al., GCN 18811; Cenko et al., GCN 18848), collecting 4 ks of data. No X-ray emission was detected at the location of the source, with a 3-sigma upper limit of 2.4e-3 ct/sec, corresponding to a 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.0e-13 erg/cm^2/s (assuming a power-law spectrum with photon index 1.7 and column density 3e20 cm^-2). UVOT did detect PS15dpn in the uvm2 filter, at a mangitude of 19.09 0.07. A single uncatalogued X-ray source was found in our observations, however this is below the RASS upper limit at its location, and likely unrelated to the LIGO trigger. It has been assigned a rank of 3 under our classification scheme described at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ranks.php. Source 56: ============= RA: 38.0971 ( = 02h 32m 23.30s) J2000 Dec: +18.5781 ( = +18d 34' 41.2") J2000 Error: +5.9 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 2.9e-03 1.1e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 1.3e-13 4.9e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 1.2e-01 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. This circular is an official product of the Swift team. [GCN OPS NOTE(10jan16): The event ID number in the Subject-line was changed from 2111117 to 211117.] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18850 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Distance estimate from GW data compared to redshift of PS15dpn DATE: 16/01/10 14:56:55 GMT FROM: Peter Shawhan at U of Maryland/LSC The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo report: We have performed a parameter estimation analysis assuming that G211117 is a binary coalescence event with (RA,Dec) constrained to be the position of PS15dpn (Smith et al., GCN 18786; Chambers et al., GCN 18811) and allowing for calibration uncertainties in the LIGO detectors. Our preliminary analysis finds a posterior probability distribution for redshift with a central 90% credible interval of 0.07 to 0.13. There is almost no support for a source at the redshift reported for PS15dpn, z=0.175 (GCN 18811; also Cenko et al., GCN 18848, measured z=0.174), although it is not entirely ruled out. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18853 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Updated FAR estimate based on offline re-analysis DATE: 16/01/12 02:11:22 GMT FROM: Leo Singer at NASA/GSFC The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo report: We have completed offline calibration and re-analysis of the segment of data containing the gravitational-wave trigger G211117, which was first recovered on 2015-12-26 (GCN 18728). We have calculated a revised false alarm rate based on two detection pipelines, the PyCBC and GSTLAL offline searches for compact binary coalescences of neutron stars and/or stellar-mass black holes. Both pipelines estimate that G211117 is more significant (less likely to be produced by noise) than one per hundred years. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18868 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: INAF NOT follow-up of PanStarrs candidates DATE: 16/01/14 16:47:34 GMT FROM: Enzo Brocato at INAF-OA Roma P. D'Avanzo, A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), L. Tomasella, S. Benetti, E. Cappellaro, A. Pastorello (INAF-OAPd), E. Brocato (INAF-OAR), M. Branchesi (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), E. Pian (SNS-Pisa), L.Amati (INAF-IASF Bo), L. A. Antonelli, (INAF-OAR), P. Astone (INFN-Roma), S. Campana, S. Covino ((INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (INAF-ASDC), F. Getman (INAF-OAC), G. Giuffrida (INAF-ASDC), A.Grado (INAF-OAC), G.Greco (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), L. Limatola (INAF-OAC), M. Lisi (INAF-OAR), S. Marinoni, P. Marrese (INAF-ASDC), L. Nicastro, E. Palazzi (INAF-IAFS Bo), S. Piranomonte, L. Pulone (INAF-OAR), F. Ricci (Sapienza University), G. Stratta (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB), V. Testa (INAF-OAR), P. Blay (IAC/NOT, Canary Island, Spain) on behalf of the INAF Gravitational Astronomy group report: We report the spectroscopic observation of the optical candidates reported by Smith et al. (GCN Circ. 18786) PS15dpu (aka ASASSN-15un) and PS15dou with the Nordic Optical Telescope (Canary Islands, Spain) equipped with ALFOSC (gm4, range 320-910 nm) starting on Jan 09.88 UT. For PS15dpu aka ASASSN-15un, we confirm the main findings of Seibert et al. 2016, Atel#8526, that the object is a very young type II SN. The spectrum shows prominent P-Cygni lines of H and He I. The ejecta velocity obtained from the position of the Halpha minimum is about 9000 km/s. The low S/N spectrum of PS15dou is consistent with those of evolved type II SNe, showing the presence of P-Cygni H lines, Na ID, Ca II H&K and several Fe II lines. The best match is found with SN 1996L (Benetti et al. 1999, MNRAS 305, 811) around 2 month after explosion. Classification was done with GELATO (Harutyunyan et al. 2008, A&A, 488, 383) and SNID (Blondin and Tonry 2007, ApJ, 666, 1024). -- Enzo Brocato INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma Via di Frascati, 33 I-00040 Monteporzio Catone, Italy Phone: +39 0694286438 web page: www.oa-roma.inaf.it/brocato SpoT Group: www.oa-teramo.inaf.it/SPoT //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18870 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Further Swift-XRT sources DATE: 16/01/15 12:20:10 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea (PSU), S.D. Barthelmy (NASA/GSFC), D.N. Burrows (PSU), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), S.B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), P. Giommi (ASI), F.E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), J.A. Nousek (PSU), P.T. O'Brien (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), D.M. Palmer (LANL), M. Perri (ASDC), J.L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC), M.H. Siegel (PSU), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift team: Swift has performed a series of 264 observations of galaxies (from the GWGC catalogue) within the aLIGO error region for the aLIGO trigger G211117, using the 'bayestar' GW localisation map. The observations currently span from 140 ks to 1677 ks after the aLIGO trigger, and cover 32.3 sq degrees on the sky (corrected for overlaps). Since the last Swift GCN, we have detected 8 X-ray sources, these are either new detections, or have been given a higher 'rank' than in the last circular. Each source is assigned a rank of 1-4 which describes how likely it is to be related to the GW trigger, with 1 being the most likely and 4 being the least likely. The ranks are described at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ranks.php. We have found: * 0 sources of rank 1 * 0 sources of rank 2 * 6 sources of rank 3 * 2 sources of rank 4 We assumed a power-law spectrum with NH=3e20 cm^2, and photon index (Gamma)=1.7 Several other sources were circulated as GCN/LVC Counterpart notices (including one with a rank of 2) with a flag identifying them as potentially spurious. Manual inspection of the images confirms that these were not point sources, but artifacts caused by an area of diffuse X-ray emission, centred on RA~02h 32m 37s Dec~+18d 44' 10", with a radius of ~0.6 arcmin. RANK 3 sources ============== These are uncatalogued X-ray sources, however they are not brighter than previous upper limits, so do not stand out as likely counterparts to the GW trigger. Source 56: ============= RA: 38.0971 ( = 02h 32m 23.30s) J2000 Dec: +18.5781 ( = +18d 34' 41.2") J2000 Error: +5.9 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 2.2e-03 +/- 6.4e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 9.5e-14 +/- 2.7e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 1.2e-01 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. Source 57: ============= RA: 38.0905 ( = 02h 32m 21.72s) J2000 Dec: +18.6325 ( = +18d 37' 57.0") J2000 Error: +6.8 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 3.1e-03 +/- 8.1e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 1.3e-13 +/- 3.5e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 1.4e-01 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. Source 59: ============= RA: 38.1497 ( = 02h 32m 35.93s) J2000 Dec: +18.7140 ( = +18d 42' 50.4") J2000 Error: +7.6 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.0e-03 +/- 4.4e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 4.4e-14 +/- 1.9e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 8.1e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. Source 61: ============= RA: 38.2965 ( = 02h 33m 11.16s) J2000 Dec: +18.5393 ( = +18d 32' 21.5") J2000 Error: +11.5 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.1e-03 +/- 4.6e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 4.8e-14 +/- 2.0e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 6.1e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. Source 65: ============= RA: 38.1408 ( = 02h 32m 33.79s) J2000 Dec: +18.6392 ( = +18d 38' 21.1") J2000 Error: +7.6 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.3e-03 +/- 5.1e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 5.7e-14 +/- 2.2e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 9.0e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. Source 67: ============= RA: 38.0820 ( = 02h 32m 19.68s) J2000 Dec: +18.7338 ( = +18d 44' 01.7") J2000 Error: +5.9 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.2e-03 +/- 5.1e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 5.2e-14 +/- 2.2e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 1.3e-01 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. RANK 4 sources ============== These are catalogued X-ray sources, showing no signs of outburst compared to previous observations, so they are not likely to be related to the GW trigger. Source 63: ============= RA: 136.1544 ( = 09h 04m 37.06s) J2000 Dec: +55.5974 ( = +55d 35' 50.6") J2000 Error: +6.9 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.5e-01 +/- 5.9e-02 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 6.5e-12 +/- 2.5e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 1SXPS J090436.8+553600 in the 1SXPS catalogue Separation: 10.3" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 1.7e-01 +/- 4.0e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 7.2e-12 +/- 1.7e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the catalogued flux. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. A SIMBAD object `2MASX J09043675+5535515' is 2.7" away. There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius. Source 64: ============= RA: 153.7665 ( = 10h 15m 3.96s) J2000 Dec: +49.4331 ( = +49d 25' 59.2") J2000 Error: +5.0 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 2.0e+00 +/- 4.4e-01 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 8.5e-11 +/- 1.9e-11 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 1SXPS J101504.1+492559 in the 1SXPS catalogue Separation: 1.7" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 1.3e+00 +/- 7.7e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 5.6e-11 +/- 3.3e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) so the source is 1.5-sigma above the catalogued flux. There is no evidence for fading. NOTE: this source is not within 200 kpc of a GWGC galaxy. A SIMBAD object `6C 101157+494057' is 2.3" away. There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius. This circular is an official product of the Swift team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18873 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Preliminary VLA observation summary of PS15dpn DATE: 16/01/17 00:51:37 GMT FROM: Nipuni Palliyaguru at TTU A. Corsi (TTU) and N. Palliyaguru (TTU) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We imaged again the position of the Pan-STARRS transient PS15dpn (Chambers et al. GCN 18811; also iPTF15fgl, Cenko et al. 18848), located in the error region of LIGO/Virgo G211117 (LVC et al., GCN 18728), with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in its DnC configuration. A provisional reduction of the images collected since the start of our follow-up (Palliyaguru et al. GCN 18846) shows a ~6 sigma excess at 6 GHz at a location consistent with PS15dpn. Our observations show no evidence for variability of this radio counterpart between 08 Jan 2016 and 14 Jan 2016 (UTC). We report below a summary of our observations and provisional results. Further observations are planned. Epoch 1 (08-Jan-2016/04:11:50.0-05:11:35.0 UTC) Freq | Flux ----------------------------------- 6.2 GHz | (57.1+/-9.1) uJy ======================================== Epoch 2 (13-Jan-2016/02:17:36.0-04:42:10.0 UTC) Freq | Flux ----------------------------------- 3.1 GHz | (86+/-30) uJy 9.0 GHz | (36.3+/-7.2) uJy 14.8 GHz| (25.2+/-6.5) uJy ======================================== Epoch 3 (14-Jan-2016/03:03:30.0-04:03:15.0 UTC) Freq | Flux ----------------------------------- 6.3 GHz | (52.8+/-8.7) uJy //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18889 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Refined localization from CBC parameter estimation DATE: 16/01/18 15:55:50 GMT FROM: Leo Singer at NASA/GSFC The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo report: We have completed a Bayesian parameter estimation analysis of the GW candidate G211117 (GCN 18728) under the assumption that the signal arises from a compact binary coalescence (CBC) and using the initial online calibration of the GW strain data. The data is most consistent with a binary black hole merger. One refined sky map is now available and can be retrieved from GraceDB (https://gracedb.ligo.org/events/G211117): * LALInference_skymap.fits.gz, using Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo and nested sampling to perform forward modeling of the full GW signal including spin precession and regression of systematic calibration errors. We expect that additional parameter estimation runs based on the offline re-calibration of the GW data and additional waveform approximants will yield consistent results. We regard this sky map as the most accurate to date for this event. This sky map agrees with the initial BAYESTAR and cWB localizations on favoring two broad, disjoint segments of an annulus. The table below presents a quantitative comparison of the available localizations along the lines of Sec. 4.5 of Essick et al. (2015, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ApJ...800...81E). The first column gives the area in deg2 of the 90% credible region, and the second column gives the area in deg2 of the overlap with the LALInference 90% credible region. Area Overlap Algorithm (filename) ------------------------------------------------------------- 1340 1090 BAYESTAR (bayestar.fits.gz) 2230 1180 cWB (skyprobcc_cWB.fits) 1240 ---- LALInference (LALInference_skymap.fits.gz) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18937 SUBJECT: LIGO Virgo G211117: MWA Observations DATE: 16/01/26 22:02:07 GMT FROM: David Kaplan at UW-Milwaukee D. Kaplan (UWM), S. Croft (UC Berkeley/Eureka Scientific), K. Bannister (CSIRO), T. Murphy (University of Sydney), A. Rowlinson (UvA/Astron), M. Bell (CSIRO), S. Tingay (Curtin University), R. Wayth (Curtin University), T. Franzen (Curtin University), A. Williams (Curtin University) on behalf of the Murchison Widefield Array collaboration report: We observed a single pointing designed to cover the main part of the southern-lobe of the skymap of the advanced LIGO/Virgo trigger G211117 with the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. The observation covers roughly 30deg x 30deg (FWHM) centered at: 14:45:00 -44:26:00 2015-12-28 00:20 UT The observations are at a center frequency of 154 MHz, with a 30 MHz bandwidth with 1s integrations and 40 kHz frequency resolution. A second observation is planned. Analysis is ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19005 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: LOFAR follow-up DATE: 16/02/09 09:30:58 GMT FROM: Antonia Rowlinson at U van Amsterdam A. Rowlinson (UvA, ASTRON), J. Broderick (ASTRON), P.G. Jonker (SRON/RU), R.P. Fender (Oxford), R.A.M.J. Wijers (UvA), B.W. Stappers (Manchester), S. ter Veen (ASTRON), S. Ghosh (RU), A. Shulevski (ASTRON) report on behalf of the LOFAR Transients Key Science project On Feb 5, 2016, starting at 09:03 (UTC), we observed a large fraction of the localization error range of the Advanced LIGO trigger G211117 with the ILT (International Low-Frequency Array [LOFAR] Telescope). This is the second set of LOFAR observations of these fields. The fields will be revisited once more with the same exposures, on a provisional time-scale of 2 months from now. The observations were obtained with the High-Band Antennas (HBA) at a centre frequency of 145 MHz (bandwidth 15.6 MHz). We used 6 simultaneous beams on the sky, where each beam has a field of view of approximately 12 deg^2 (beam FWHM 3.9 degrees). The beam centres are given below: Pointing 1 (starting at 09:03 UTC and 13:03 UTC) 1) 39.750000 19.433333 02:39:00.00 +19:26:00.0 2) 37.478042 19.814500 02:29:54.73 +19:48:52.2 3) 39.056375 21.630111 02:36:13.53 +21:37:48.4 4) 40.443625 17.236556 02:41:46.47 +17:14:11.6 5) 42.021958 19.052167 02:48:05.27 +19:03:07.8 6) 37.817000 17.209667 02:31:16.08 +17:12:34.8 Pointing 2 (starting at 09:33 UTC and 13:33 UTC) 1) 43.523458 24.012694 02:54:05.63 +24:00:45.7 2) 41.204125 24.163000 02:44:48.99 +24:09:46.8 3) 42.663792 26.172056 02:50:39.31 +26:10:19.4 4) 44.383125 21.853333 02:57:31.95 +21:51:12.0 5) 45.842792 23.862389 03:03:22.27 +23:51:44.6 6) 41.683000 21.657000 02:46:43.92 +21:39:25.2 Pointing 3 (starting at 10:03 UTC and 14:03 UTC) 1) 47.347500 28.815800 03:09:23.40 +28:48:56.9 2) 45.035000 29.249472 03:00:08.40 +29:14:58.1 3) 46.833417 31.111750 03:07:20.02 +31:06:42.3 4) 47.861583 26.519861 03:11:26.78 +26:31:11.5 5) 49.660000 28.382139 03:18:38.40 +28:22:55.7 6) 45.311208 26.473306 03:01:14.69 +26:28:23.9 Pointing 4 (starting at 10:33 UTC and 14:33 UTC) 1) 51.762750 33.469417 03:27:03.06 +33:28:09.9 2) 49.412000 33.897167 03:17:38.88 +33:53:49.8 3) 51.335000 35.820194 03:25:20.40 +35:49:12.7 4) 52.190500 31.118639 03:28:45.72 +31:07:07.1 5) 54.113500 33.041667 03:36:27.24 +33:02:30.0 6) 49.550083 31.096639 03:18:12.02 +31:05:47.9 Pointing 5 (starting at 11:03 UTC and 15:03 UTC) 1) 56.818083 37.934167 03:47:16.34 +37:56:03.0 2) 54.463958 38.555972 03:37:51.35 +38:33:21.5 3) 56.699333 40.366111 03:46:47.84 +40:21:58.0 4) 56.936833 35.502222 03:47:44.84 +35:30:08.0 5) 59.172208 37.312361 03:56:41.33 +37:18:44.5 6) 54.117958 35.824611 03:36:28.31 +35:49:28.6 Pointing 6 (starting at 11:33 UTC and 15:33 UTC) 1) 62.380833 42.438778 04:09:31.40 +42:26:19.6 2) 60.036333 43.290528 04:00:08.72 +43:17:25.9 3) 62.643042 44.919389 04:10:34.33 +44:55:09.8 4) 62.118625 39.958167 04:08:28.47 +39:57:29.4 5) 64.725333 41.587028 04:18:54.08 +41:35:13.3 6) 59.555833 40.151139 03:58:13.40 +40:09:04.1 Pointing 7 (starting at 12:03 UTC and 16:03 UTC) 1) 68.908792 46.437806 04:35:38.11 +46:26:16.1 2) 66.516750 47.358250 04:26:04.02 +47:21:29.7 3) 69.395792 48.954111 04:37:34.99 +48:57:14.8 4) 68.421792 43.921500 04:33:41.23 +43:55:17.4 5) 71.300833 45.517361 04:45:12.20 +45:31:02.5 6) 65.573417 44.433722 04:22:17.62 +44:26:01.4 Pointing 8 (starting at 12:33 UTC and 16:33 UTC) 1) 76.256792 50.093972 05:05:01.63 +50:05:38.3 2) 73.881750 51.253417 04:55:31.62 +51:15:12.3 3) 77.159833 52.577833 05:08:38.36 +52:34:40.2 4) 75.353750 47.610111 05:01:24.90 +47:36:36.4 5) 78.631833 48.934528 05:14:31.64 +48:56:04.3 6) 72.434875 48.392333 04:49:44.37 +48:23:32.4 The observations cover roughly 200 square degrees in total. Each field was observed for a total of 53 min (2 x 26.5 min) with 10s time resolution after pre-processing. Analysis is ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19145 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: GRAWITA LBT follow-up of PS15dpn DATE: 16/03/04 17:34:54 GMT FROM: Enzo Brocato at INAF-OA Roma E. Palazzi (INAF-IASF Bo), E. Cappellaro (INAF-OAPd), E. Brocato (INAF-OAR), M. Branchesi (Urbino . University/INFN Firenze), S. Covino (INAF-OAB), A. Grado (INAF-OAC), E. Pian (SNS-Pisa), F. Cusano (INAF-OABo), A. Marchetti (INAF-IASF Mi), A. Rossi , L.Amati (INAF-IASF Bo), L. A. Antonelli (INAF-OAR), S. Campana, P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (INAF-ASDC), F. Getman (INAF-OAC), G. Giuffrida (INAF-ASDC), G.Greco (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), L. Limatola (INAF-OAC), M. Lisi (INAF-OAR), S. Marinoni, P. Marrese (INAF-ASDC), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), L. Nicastro (INAF-IASF Bo), S. Piranomonte (INAF-OAR), L. Pulone (INAF-OAR), G. Stratta (Urbino University/INFN Firenze), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB), V. Testa (INAF-OAR), L. Tomasella (INAF-OAPd) on behalf of the GRAvitational Wave Inaf TeAM (GRAWITA). Further to GCN 18786 and GCN 18811, we report the spectroscopic classification of the Pan-STARRS transient PS15dpn within the localisation region of G211117. LBT/MODS and LBT/LUCI spectra were taken on 2016 Jan 28-29 and cover 320 nm to 1.0 microns the MODS optical spectra, 1.0 to 2-3 microns the LUCI infrared spectra. Multiband LBT/LBC (UBVr) photometric observations were performed simultaneously with the infrared spectroscopy. The transient and its host galaxy are very well detected in both photometric and spectroscopic data. The redshift of the host galaxy measured from narrow H_alpha, NII and OII emission lines is z=0.1749. Based on a preliminary calibration, the spectra show that the transient is a peculiar supernova of type Ibn similar to SN 2006jc few weeks after maximum (Pastorello et al. 2008, MNRAS 389,113). Indeed there appear strong HeI emission lines (in particular the 501.6, 587.5, 706.5 nm transitions) of moderate width (FWHM< ~3000 km/s). In the near infrared two emissions are measured at ~1090 nm and 1280 nm likely due to MgII 933-934 nm and He I 1083nm. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19156 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: HAWC follow-up of northern sky DATE: 16/03/07 15:58:01 GMT FROM: Joshua Wood at UMD J. Wood (UMD) reports on behalf of the HAWC Collaboration: The northern portion of the reported LIGO error region was within the HAWC field-of-view at the time of gravitational-wave trigger G211117. HAWC was operating and our real-time all-sky GRB monitoring analysis was running at this time. This analysis searches for excess counts over the steady-state cosmic-ray background using 4 sliding time windows (0.1, 1, 10, and 100 seconds) shifted forward in time by 10% their width over the course of the entire day. Within each time window, we search the HAWC sky within 50 degrees of zenith using 2.3 deg x 2.3 deg square bins shifted by ~0.1 deg along the directions of Right Ascension and Declination. This analysis is tuned for detecting ~100 GeV photons and is sensitive to the most fluent GRBs [http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.04120 ]. It did not report any significant post-trials events near the time of gravitational-wave trigger G211117. On 2016/02/27 we went back and re-analyzed the data within +/- 10 seconds of gravitational-wave trigger G211117 on 3 timescales (1, 10, 100 sec) to look for excesses consistent with the latest LALInference map. To do this, we limited the spatial search of our all-sky GRB analysis to a ~15 degree wide region centered on the LIGO contour between (RA = 15 deg, Dec = -15 deg) and (RA = 90 deg, Dec = 55 deg). This yielded a single candidate from the 10 second sliding window passing a >5 sigma pre-trials threshold: Candidate 1: =========== RA: 28.628 (+01h 54m 30.63s) J2000 Dec: +1.200 (+01d 11' 59.1") J2000 Error: +1.15 (square region, half side) Start Time: 2015/12/26 03:39:03.61 UTC Duration: 10 seconds Pre-trials p-value: 2.55e-07 Post-trials p-value: 0.08 It occurred 9.96 seconds after gravitational-wave trigger G211117. However, accounting for the ~3.3e5 effective trials taken when searching the correlated spatial and time bins used in this analysis yields a post-trials p-value of 0.08, which is entirely consistent with a background only hypothesis. Even if we reduce the number of spatial trials by a factor of ~4 to account for the empty space within our search region the p-value only drops to ~0.02 and remains consistent with a background only hypothesis. The HAWC observatory is a TeV gamma-ray observatory operating in Central Mexico. It consists of 300 Water Cherenkov Detectors at an altitude of 4100 meters a.s.l. A detailed description of the sensitivity of HAWC to gamma-rays can be found in A. U. Abeysekara et al., Astropart. Phys. 50-52 (2013). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19208 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: EWE for NOWT follow-up of northern sky DATE: 16/03/19 17:29:52 GMT FROM: Jinzhong Liu at Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory Liu Jinzhong (XAO), Zhang, Yu (XAO); Zhang, Xuan (XAO); Niu, Hubiao (XAO); Pu, guangxin (XAO); Ma, shuguo (XAO); Yang, taozhi (XAO); Song, fangfang(XAO), on behalf of the NOWT group report: We followed up the GraceDB event (event ID: G211117) with Nanshan One-meter Wide field Telescope (NOWT) from Xinjiang Astronomical observatory (XAO). The first observation was observed at UTC 2016:01:21:20:06:20. The first observation reached an exposure time of 100 seconds with V band and approached a limiting magnitude of 19.6 magnitude with a non-detection of EM-trigger during 2 hrs lasting observation. We only report the first observation here, more information will be reported with below. We monitored the sky region constantly since the event, and we anticipated to continue the observation for time-dominant astronomy. Analysis is ongoing, we observed the northern sky range: ========================= Detailed information about the observation is listed below RA DEC EXP UTC number total(hour) limit_mag filter 09:14;28.00 +42:46:38.0 100s 20160121200620 246 2 19.6 V 08:30:48.00 +35:00:00.0 20s 20160204130300 533 11 18.2 B/V/R/I 08:32:40.0 +35:00:00.0 20s 20160211132012 388 10 18.4 B/V/R/I 08:33:20.0 +35:00:00.0 35s 20160214183004 243 6 18.8 B/V/R/I 08:34:48.0 +35:00:00.0 35s 20160219135050 387 9.5 17.2 B/V/R/I 08:36:24.0 +35:00:00.0 35s 20160225130355 763 19.5 19.0 B/V/R/I 08:37:12.0 +35:00:00.0 35s 20160228125352 697 18.5 19.0 B/V/R/I 09:10:09.51 +55:14:23.7 35s 20160306130840 1217 30.5 18.8 B/V/R/I 10:00:00.0 +50:00:00.0 35s 20160310131651 1181 30.5 18.8 B/V/R/I ... ... -- N: Jinzhong Liu, PhD O: Main building, 213 P: 150, Science 1-Street, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China T: 86 991 3689027 D: 2012-07-14 E: optics@xao.ac.cn //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19225 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: CALET GBM Observations DATE: 16/03/25 12:54:03 GMT FROM: Takanori Sakamoto at Aoyama Gakuin U A. Yoshida, T. Sakamoto, I. Takahashi, Y. Kawakubo, K. Senuma, M. Moriyama, Y. Yamada (AGU), K. Yamaoka (Nagoya U), S. Nakahira (JAXA), Y. Asaoka, S. Ozawa, S. Torii (Waseda U), Y. Shimizu, T. Tamura (Kanagawa U), W. Ishizaki (ICRR), M. L. Cherry (LSU), S. Ricciarini (U of Florence) P. S. Marrocchesi (U of Siena) and the CALET collaboration: The CALET Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (CGBM) was operating at the trigger time of G211117 (GCN Circ. 18728). No CGBM on-board trigger occurred at the time of the event. Based on the updated LIGO sky map (GCN Circ. 18858), the southern arc of the high probability area was in the field-of-view of CGBM. Based on the analysis of the light curve data with 0.125 sec time resolution from -60 sec to 60 sec from the trigger time, we found no significant excess around the trigger time in either the HXM (7-1000 keV) or the SGM (0.1-20 MeV) data. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19249 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: LOFAR follow-up DATE: 16/04/01 13:49:31 GMT FROM: Antonia Rowlinson at U van Amsterdam J. Broderick (ASTRON), A. Rowlinson (UvA, ASTRON), P.G. Jonker (SRON/RU), R.P. Fender (Oxford), R.A.M.J. Wijers (UvA), B.W. Stappers (Manchester), S. ter Veen (ASTRON), S. Ghosh (RU), A. Shulevski (ASTRON) report on behalf of the LOFAR Transients Key Science project On March 30, 2016, starting at 09:03 (UTC), we observed a large fraction of the localization error range of the Advanced LIGO trigger G211117 with the ILT (International Low-Frequency Array [LOFAR] Telescope). This is the third and final set of LOFAR observations of these fields. The observations were obtained with the High-Band Antennas (HBA) at a centre frequency of 145 MHz (bandwidth 15.6 MHz). We used 6 simultaneous beams on the sky, where each beam has a field of view of approximately 12 deg^2 (beam FWHM 3.9 degrees). The beam centres are given below: Pointing 1 (starting at 09:03 UTC and 13:03 UTC) 1) 39.750000 19.433333 02:39:00.00 +19:26:00.0 2) 37.478042 19.814500 02:29:54.73 +19:48:52.2 3) 39.056375 21.630111 02:36:13.53 +21:37:48.4 4) 40.443625 17.236556 02:41:46.47 +17:14:11.6 5) 42.021958 19.052167 02:48:05.27 +19:03:07.8 6) 37.817000 17.209667 02:31:16.08 +17:12:34.8 Pointing 2 (starting at 09:33 UTC and 13:33 UTC) 1) 43.523458 24.012694 02:54:05.63 +24:00:45.7 2) 41.204125 24.163000 02:44:48.99 +24:09:46.8 3) 42.663792 26.172056 02:50:39.31 +26:10:19.4 4) 44.383125 21.853333 02:57:31.95 +21:51:12.0 5) 45.842792 23.862389 03:03:22.27 +23:51:44.6 6) 41.683000 21.657000 02:46:43.92 +21:39:25.2 Pointing 3 (starting at 10:03 UTC and 14:03 UTC) 1) 47.347500 28.815800 03:09:23.40 +28:48:56.9 2) 45.035000 29.249472 03:00:08.40 +29:14:58.1 3) 46.833417 31.111750 03:07:20.02 +31:06:42.3 4) 47.861583 26.519861 03:11:26.78 +26:31:11.5 5) 49.660000 28.382139 03:18:38.40 +28:22:55.7 6) 45.311208 26.473306 03:01:14.69 +26:28:23.9 Pointing 4 (starting at 10:33 UTC and 14:33 UTC) 1) 51.762750 33.469417 03:27:03.06 +33:28:09.9 2) 49.412000 33.897167 03:17:38.88 +33:53:49.8 3) 51.335000 35.820194 03:25:20.40 +35:49:12.7 4) 52.190500 31.118639 03:28:45.72 +31:07:07.1 5) 54.113500 33.041667 03:36:27.24 +33:02:30.0 6) 49.550083 31.096639 03:18:12.02 +31:05:47.9 Pointing 5 (starting at 11:03 UTC and 15:03 UTC) 1) 56.818083 37.934167 03:47:16.34 +37:56:03.0 2) 54.463958 38.555972 03:37:51.35 +38:33:21.5 3) 56.699333 40.366111 03:46:47.84 +40:21:58.0 4) 56.936833 35.502222 03:47:44.84 +35:30:08.0 5) 59.172208 37.312361 03:56:41.33 +37:18:44.5 6) 54.117958 35.824611 03:36:28.31 +35:49:28.6 Pointing 6 (starting at 11:33 UTC and 15:33 UTC) 1) 62.380833 42.438778 04:09:31.40 +42:26:19.6 2) 60.036333 43.290528 04:00:08.72 +43:17:25.9 3) 62.643042 44.919389 04:10:34.33 +44:55:09.8 4) 62.118625 39.958167 04:08:28.47 +39:57:29.4 5) 64.725333 41.587028 04:18:54.08 +41:35:13.3 6) 59.555833 40.151139 03:58:13.40 +40:09:04.1 Pointing 7 (starting at 12:03 UTC and 16:03 UTC) 1) 68.908792 46.437806 04:35:38.11 +46:26:16.1 2) 66.516750 47.358250 04:26:04.02 +47:21:29.7 3) 69.395792 48.954111 04:37:34.99 +48:57:14.8 4) 68.421792 43.921500 04:33:41.23 +43:55:17.4 5) 71.300833 45.517361 04:45:12.20 +45:31:02.5 6) 65.573417 44.433722 04:22:17.62 +44:26:01.4 Pointing 8 (starting at 12:33 UTC and 16:33 UTC) 1) 76.256792 50.093972 05:05:01.63 +50:05:38.3 2) 73.881750 51.253417 04:55:31.62 +51:15:12.3 3) 77.159833 52.577833 05:08:38.36 +52:34:40.2 4) 75.353750 47.610111 05:01:24.90 +47:36:36.4 5) 78.631833 48.934528 05:14:31.64 +48:56:04.3 6) 72.434875 48.392333 04:49:44.37 +48:23:32.4 The observations cover roughly 200 square degrees in total. Each field was observed for a total of 53 min (2 x 26.5 min) with 10s time resolution after pre-processing. Analysis is ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19258 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: 10.4m GTC follow-up of PS15dpn DATE: 16/04/04 10:24:24 GMT FROM: Alberto J. Castro-Tirado at IAA-CSIC A. J. Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC), M.-D. Caballero-Garcia (ASU-CAS), S.R. Oates (IAA-CSIC), S. Jeong (IAA-CSIC and SKKU), B-B. Zhang (IAA-CSIC) and E. Pian (SNS-Pisa), report: “Further to GCNCs 19145, 18848, 18811 and 18786, we report the spectroscopic follow-up of the Pan-STARRS transient PS15dpn within the localisation region of G211117. OSIRIS spectra (2 x 600s) at the 10.4m GTC in La Palma were taken on 5 Jan 2016 and covered the range 700-1000 nm. r-band photometric observations were performed near-simultaneously to the optical spectroscopy. We confirm the z=0.1749 redshift from the host galaxy based on the detection of H-alpha and NII emission lines in this range.” //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19310 SUBJECT: LIGO Virgo G211117: Additional MWA Observations DATE: 16/04/13 01:46:07 GMT FROM: David Kaplan at UW-Milwaukee D. Kaplan (UWM), S. Croft (UC Berkeley/Eureka Scientific), K. Bannister (CSIRO), T. Murphy (University of Sydney), A. Rowlinson (UvA/Astron), M. Bell (CSIRO), S. Tingay (Curtin University), R. Wayth (Curtin University), T. Franzen (Curtin University), A. Williams (Curtin University) on behalf of the Murchison Widefield Array collaboration report: We observed a single pointing designed to cover the main part of the southern-lobe of the skymap of the advanced LIGO/Virgo trigger G211117 with the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. The observation covers roughly 30deg x 30deg (FWHM) centered at: 14:45:00 -47:30:00 2016-04-07 17:37 UT The observations are at a center frequency of 154 MHz, with a 30 MHz bandwidth with 1s integrations and 40 kHz frequency resolution. Analysis is ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19315 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: EWE for NOWT of 12 days follow-up of northern sky DATE: 16/04/15 11:17:05 GMT FROM: Jinzhong Liu at Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory Liu Jinzhong (XAO), Zhang, Yu (XAO); Zhang, Xuan (XAO); Niu, Hubiao (XAO); Pu, guangxin (XAO); Ma, shuguo (XAO); Yang, taozhi (XAO); Song, fangfang(XAO), on behalf of the NOWT group report: This is a time-dominant survey follow-up report of Liu et al. (GCN19208). Each FOV of NOWT was monitored 3 days using standard BVR bands, and it was marked as EWE001, EWE002, EWE003 and EWE004. Note that the calibrated magnitude value of 15 is an assumption as a up-limited magnitude in our caculation. This would imply that EM-trigger of GW sources could not correspond with the brightness targets. Meanwhile all the targets had the value of SNR>10. We reported the photometric variable information during the time-dominant survey as below. 1)Detailed information about the observation of EWE001 (time range: 2016:03:06:13:14:05 to 2016:03:06:23:37:35, 2016:03:08:13:42:24 to 2016:03:08:23:42:55, 2016:03:09:13:15:58 to 2016:03:09:23:27:43) RA DEC Mag(V) M_err Variability-type 137.531483 55.002369 15.265 0.0295 eruptive with irregularity 138.630270 55.123970 15.823 0.0950 periodicity 138.598282 54.811173 16.544 0.1485 eruptive with a dip 136.399169 54.822750 16.208 0.1301 cataclysmic with regularity 2)Detailed information about the observation of EWE002 (time range: 2016:03:10:13:16:56 to 2016:03:10:23:06:05, 2016:03:12:13:17:50 to 2016:03:12:23:34:34, 2016:03:13:13:39:14 to 2016:03:13:23:25:10) RA DEC Mag(V) M_err Variability-type 149.856039 50.518744 15.258 0.0215 eruptive with a dip 149.570337 49.430700 15.976 0.0590 periodicity 149.823531 50.014876 16.249 0.0566 eruptive with a dip 149.281069 50.077445 17.436 0.1037 fast oscillation 149.828243 50.145567 17.894 0.1390 eruptive with a dip 149.831656 50.168234 16.148 0.0402 eruptive with double dips 150.894291 50.252967 16.218 0.1062 pulsating 149.269826 50.234558 16.994 0.1039 eruptive with double dips 3)Detailed information about the observation of EWE003 (time range: 2016:03:21:14:07:32 to 2016:03:21:23:17:36, 2016:03:22:13:28:44 to 2016:03:22:22:57:18, 2016:03:23:13:38:56 to 2016:03:23:22:30:22) RA DEC Mag(V) M_err Variability-type 151.734041 49.563742 15.804 0.1241 eruptive with double dips 151.413957 49.553095 15.107 0.1846 periodicity 4)Detailed information about the observation of EWE004 (time range: 2016:03:24:13:30:26 to 2016:03:24:22:41:01, 2016:03:27:15:12:19 to 2016:03:27:23:05:59, 2016:03:28:16:09:54 to 2016:03:28:23:05:07) RA DEC Mag(V) M_err Variability-type 152.055858 48.805903 15.183 0.1058 periodicity 152.626914 48.925828 15.193 0.0503 fast oscillation 152.917431 48.942816 15.131 0.0606 eruptive with a tuber 151.415220 49.552819 15.237 0.0741 eclipsing 151.142881 49.586450 15.450 0.0488 eruptive with three dips 151.936807 48.837133 15.695 0.0494 fast oscillation 152.207676 48.715853 17.186 0.1914 periodicity Note: 21 targets can be found as the photometric variability, and the follow-up of spectrograph observation should be important next. Analysis is ongoing. -- N: Jinzhong Liu, PhD O: Main building, 213 P: 150, Science 1-Street, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China T: 86 991 3689027 D: 2012-07-14 E: optics@xao.ac.cn //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19401 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Astrosat CZTI upper limits DATE: 16/05/07 09:25:01 GMT FROM: Varun Bhalerao at IUCAA Varun Bhalerao (IUCAA), Dipankar Bhattacharya (IUCAA), Ajay Vibhute (IUCAA), Sukanta Bose (IUCAA), Gulab Chand Dewangan (IUCAA), Ranjeev Misra (IUCAA), Sanjit Mitra (IUCAA), A R Rao (TIFR), Tarun Souradeep (IUCAA), Santosh Vadawale (PRL), on behalf of the Astrosat CZTI team report: We carried out offline analysis of data from Astrosat CZTI in a 100 second window centred on the G211117 trigger time, UT 2015-12-26 03:38:53.648, to look for any coincident hard X-ray flash. CZTI is a coded aperture mask instrument that has considerable effective area for about 29% of the entire sky. Based on the pointing direction of Astrosat at the time of the GW event and the LALInference skymap provided by LVC (LALInference_skymap.fits.gz,0), the sky visible to CZTI has 32% probability of containing the EM counterpart. CZTI data were de-trended to remove orbit-wise background variation. We then searched data from the four independent, identical quadrants to look for coincident spikes in the count rates. Searches were undertaken by binning the data in 0.1s, 1s and 10s respectively. Statistical fluctuations in count rates were estimated by using data from 20 neighbouring orbits. We selected confidence levels such that the probability of a false trigger in this 100s window is 10^-4. We do not find any evidence for any hard X-ray transient in this window. We convert our count rates into fluence and flux limits by assuming that the source spectrum is a power-law with a photon index Gamma = 1 and 2 respectively ( N(E) \propto E^-\Gamma ). The upper limits for source fluence and flux in a 30-200 keV band at different timescales are: Calculating fluxes assuming photon power law index Gamma = 1.0 0.1 s: Effective fluence limit= 2.3e-7 ergs/cm^2; flux= 2.3e-6 ergs/cm^2/s 1.0 s: Effective fluence limit= 5.8e-7 ergs/cm^2; flux= 5.8e-7 ergs/cm^2/s 10.0s: Effective fluence limit= 1.5e-6 ergs/cm^2; flux= 1.5e-7 ergs/cm^2/s Calculating fluxes assuming phton perlaw index Gamma = 2.0 0.1 s: Effective fluence limit= 2.9e-7 ergs/cm^2; flux= 2.9e-6 ergs/cm^2/s 1.0 s: Effective fluence limit= 7.5e-7 ergs/cm^2; flux= 7.5e-7 ergs/cm^2/s 10.0s: Effective fluence limit= 1.9e-6 ergs/cm^2; flux= 1.9e-7 ergs/cm^2/s CZTI is built by a TIFR-led consortium of institutes across India, including VSSC, ISAC, IUCAA, SAC and PRL. The Indian Space Research Organisation funded, managed and facilitated the project. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19540 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117/GW151226: serendipitous XMM-Newton slew observations DATE: 16/06/16 19:31:59 GMT FROM: Eleonora Troja at GSFC A. M. Read (U. Leicester), A. Tiengo (IUSS Pavia), R. Salvaterra (INAF-IASF Milano), E. Troja (NASA/GSFC), R. D. Saxton (ESAC) report: We analyzed the XMM-Newton slews made in the two weeks after the LIGO/Virgo G211117 / GW151226 event. Five slews intercept the BAYESTAR localization map in this period of time for a total coverage of about 26 square degrees: Obs ID | date | T-T_GW |coverage of localization map 9294000002 | 2015-12-28 | 2.7 d | 3 deg2 9294300002 | 2016-01-03 | 8.7 d | 4 deg2 9294400002 | 2016-01-06 | 11.6 d | 2 deg2 9294500002 | 2016-01-08 | 13.6 d | 2 deg2 9294600002 | 2016-01-10 | 15.5 d | 15 deg2 For each dataset (EPIC pn data with the Medium filter) we performed the source detection following the method described in Troja et al. 2016 (ApJ, 822, L8). Typical sensitivity limits of slew observations are ~6e-13 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the 0.2-2 keV band and ~4e-12 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the 2-12 keV band. The list of the most significant 0.2-12 keV band detections (DET_ML>12) in each slew intersecting the GW151226 localization map with no counterpart within 30 arcsec in the ROSAT All Sky Survey (Boller et al. 2016, A&A 588, A103) is reported below. The flux and counts are computed in the 0.2-12 keV energy band. ---------- Revolution 2940, Observation ID 9294000002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) 27.3262 -1.1849 4.1 6.2 2.6 20.1 12.0 5.2e-12 ---------- Revolution 2943, Observation ID 9294300002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) 15.6690 -20.0254 3.3 6.6 2.8 18.7 7.8 8.5e-12 14.6309 -17.6256 4.7 4.8 2.4 12.9 3.3 1.4e-11 ---------- Revolution 2944, Observation ID 9294400002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) Notes 186.5515 5.5650 5.1 5.0 2.4 14.8 9.4 5.3e-12 Detected also in Revolution 2945 186.7524 6.0297 3.5 4.8 2.3 17.9 11.3 4.2e-12 186.2499 5.0154 4.5 4.7 2.3 13.7 10.8 4.3e-12 185.0333 2.4117 4.2 7.8 3.0 20.0 6.2 1.2e-11 ---------- Revolution 2945, Observation ID 9294500002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) Notes 186.5545 5.5635 3.3 8.6 3.0 34.1 8.8 9.8e-12 Detected also in Revolution 2944 186.9961 6.5894 3.6 4.5 2.2 18.6 13.4 3.3e-12 186.6783 5.9833 5.2 5.5 2.5 16.8 12.0 4.5e-12 185.7506 3.7284 5.4 4.4 2.2 14.4 10.3 4.3e-12 ---------- Revolution 2946, Observation ID 92946 00002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) 187.2622 7.6581 4.5 8.2 3.2 12.4 5.8 1.4e-11 192.9292 -2.5083 4.9 5.7 2.6 15.4 5.5 1.0e-11 201.3687 -17.3449 8.7 4.9 2.3 12.5 8.0 6.2e-12 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19540 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117/GW151226: serendipitous XMM-Newton slew observations DATE: 16/06/16 19:31:59 GMT FROM: Eleonora Troja at GSFC A. M. Read (U. Leicester), A. Tiengo (IUSS Pavia), R. Salvaterra (INAF-IASF Milano), E. Troja (NASA/GSFC), R. D. Saxton (ESAC) report: We analyzed the XMM-Newton slews made in the two weeks after the LIGO/Virgo G211117 / GW151226 event. Five slews intercept the BAYESTAR localization map in this period of time for a total coverage of about 26 square degrees: Obs ID | date | T-T_GW |coverage of localization map 9294000002 | 2015-12-28 | 2.7 d | 3 deg2 9294300002 | 2016-01-03 | 8.7 d | 4 deg2 9294400002 | 2016-01-06 | 11.6 d | 2 deg2 9294500002 | 2016-01-08 | 13.6 d | 2 deg2 9294600002 | 2016-01-10 | 15.5 d | 15 deg2 For each dataset (EPIC pn data with the Medium filter) we performed the source detection following the method described in Troja et al. 2016 (ApJ, 822, L8). Typical sensitivity limits of slew observations are ~6e-13 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the 0.2-2 keV band and ~4e-12 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the 2-12 keV band. The list of the most significant 0.2-12 keV band detections (DET_ML>12) in each slew intersecting the GW151226 localization map with no counterpart within 30 arcsec in the ROSAT All Sky Survey (Boller et al. 2016, A&A 588, A103) is reported below. The flux and counts are computed in the 0.2-12 keV energy band. ---------- Revolution 2940, Observation ID 9294000002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) 27.3262 -1.1849 4.1 6.2 2.6 20.1 12.0 5.2e-12 ---------- Revolution 2943, Observation ID 9294300002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) 15.6690 -20.0254 3.3 6.6 2.8 18.7 7.8 8.5e-12 14.6309 -17.6256 4.7 4.8 2.4 12.9 3.3 1.4e-11 ---------- Revolution 2944, Observation ID 9294400002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) Notes 186.5515 5.5650 5.1 5.0 2.4 14.8 9.4 5.3e-12 Detected also in Revolution 2945 186.7524 6.0297 3.5 4.8 2.3 17.9 11.3 4.2e-12 186.2499 5.0154 4.5 4.7 2.3 13.7 10.8 4.3e-12 185.0333 2.4117 4.2 7.8 3.0 20.0 6.2 1.2e-11 ---------- Revolution 2945, Observation ID 9294500002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) Notes 186.5545 5.5635 3.3 8.6 3.0 34.1 8.8 9.8e-12 Detected also in Revolution 2944 186.9961 6.5894 3.6 4.5 2.2 18.6 13.4 3.3e-12 186.6783 5.9833 5.2 5.5 2.5 16.8 12.0 4.5e-12 185.7506 3.7284 5.4 4.4 2.2 14.4 10.3 4.3e-12 ---------- Revolution 2946, Observation ID 92946 00002 RA (deg) DEC (deg) POS_ERR (") CTS CTS_ERR DET_ML EXPOSURE (s) FLUX (ergs cm-1 s-1) 187.2622 7.6581 4.5 8.2 3.2 12.4 5.8 1.4e-11 192.9292 -2.5083 4.9 5.7 2.6 15.4 5.5 1.0e-11 201.3687 -17.3449 8.7 4.9 2.3 12.5 8.0 6.2e-12 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19542 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117 / GW151226: Sky maps and other data available in LOSC DATE: 16/06/16 22:20:35 GMT FROM: Peter Shawhan at U of Maryland/LSC The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo report: A data release for the gravitational-wave event GW151226 (originally named G211117) is available for public use from the LIGO Open Science Center (LOSC) at https://losc.ligo.org/events/GW151226 . This includes: * Numerical values of estimated source parameters * 4096 s of gravitational-wave strain data around the time of GW151226 * Sky localization FITS files, including the final LALInference sky map * Skymap Viewer links to visualize the sky maps * Links to tutorials and other information about GW151226 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19542 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117 / GW151226: Sky maps and other data available in LOSC DATE: 16/06/16 22:20:35 GMT FROM: Peter Shawhan at U of Maryland/LSC The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo report: A data release for the gravitational-wave event GW151226 (originally named G211117) is available for public use from the LIGO Open Science Center (LOSC) at https://losc.ligo.org/events/GW151226 . This includes: * Numerical values of estimated source parameters * 4096 s of gravitational-wave strain data around the time of GW151226 * Sky localization FITS files, including the final LALInference sky map * Skymap Viewer links to visualize the sky maps * Links to tutorials and other information about GW151226 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20372 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117 / GW151226: LOFAR follow-up DATE: 17/01/05 19:15:14 GMT FROM: Antonia Rowlinson at Amsterdam and ASTRON A. Rowlinson (UvA, ASTRON), J. Broderick (ASTRON), P.G. Jonker (SRON/RU), R.P. Fender (Oxford), R.A.M.J. Wijers (UvA), B.W. Stappers (Manchester), S. ter Veen (ASTRON), S. Ghosh (RU), S. Nissanke (RU), A. Shulevski (ASTRON) report on behalf of the LOFAR Transients Key Science project On December 26, 2016, starting at 14:20 (UTC), we observed a large fraction of the localization error range of the Advanced LIGO trigger G211117 (GW151226) with the ILT (International Low-Frequency Array [LOFAR] Telescope). This is an additional set of LOFAR observations of these fields at 1 year following the detection. The observations were obtained with the High-Band Antennas (HBA) at a centre frequency of 145 MHz (bandwidth 15.6 MHz). We used 6 simultaneous beams on the sky, where each beam has a field of view of approximately 12 deg^2 (beam FWHM 3.9 degrees). The beam centres are given below: Pointing 1 (starting at 14:22 UTC and 18:22 UTC) 1) 39.750000 19.433333 02:39:00.00 +19:26:00.0 2) 37.478042 19.814500 02:29:54.73 +19:48:52.2 3) 39.056375 21.630111 02:36:13.53 +21:37:48.4 4) 40.443625 17.236556 02:41:46.47 +17:14:11.6 5) 42.021958 19.052167 02:48:05.27 +19:03:07.8 6) 37.817000 17.209667 02:31:16.08 +17:12:34.8 Pointing 2 (starting at 14:52 UTC and 18:52 UTC) 1) 43.523458 24.012694 02:54:05.63 +24:00:45.7 2) 41.204125 24.163000 02:44:48.99 +24:09:46.8 3) 42.663792 26.172056 02:50:39.31 +26:10:19.4 4) 44.383125 21.853333 02:57:31.95 +21:51:12.0 5) 45.842792 23.862389 03:03:22.27 +23:51:44.6 6) 41.683000 21.657000 02:46:43.92 +21:39:25.2 Pointing 3 (starting at 15:22 UTC and 19:22 UTC) 1) 47.347500 28.815800 03:09:23.40 +28:48:56.9 2) 45.035000 29.249472 03:00:08.40 +29:14:58.1 3) 46.833417 31.111750 03:07:20.02 +31:06:42.3 4) 47.861583 26.519861 03:11:26.78 +26:31:11.5 5) 49.660000 28.382139 03:18:38.40 +28:22:55.7 6) 45.311208 26.473306 03:01:14.69 +26:28:23.9 Pointing 4 (starting at 15:52 UTC and 19:52 UTC) 1) 51.762750 33.469417 03:27:03.06 +33:28:09.9 2) 49.412000 33.897167 03:17:38.88 +33:53:49.8 3) 51.335000 35.820194 03:25:20.40 +35:49:12.7 4) 52.190500 31.118639 03:28:45.72 +31:07:07.1 5) 54.113500 33.041667 03:36:27.24 +33:02:30.0 6) 49.550083 31.096639 03:18:12.02 +31:05:47.9 Pointing 5 (starting at 16:22 UTC and 20:22 UTC) 1) 56.818083 37.934167 03:47:16.34 +37:56:03.0 2) 54.463958 38.555972 03:37:51.35 +38:33:21.5 3) 56.699333 40.366111 03:46:47.84 +40:21:58.0 4) 56.936833 35.502222 03:47:44.84 +35:30:08.0 5) 59.172208 37.312361 03:56:41.33 +37:18:44.5 6) 54.117958 35.824611 03:36:28.31 +35:49:28.6 Pointing 6 (starting at 16:52 UTC and 20:52 UTC) 1) 62.380833 42.438778 04:09:31.40 +42:26:19.6 2) 60.036333 43.290528 04:00:08.72 +43:17:25.9 3) 62.643042 44.919389 04:10:34.33 +44:55:09.8 4) 62.118625 39.958167 04:08:28.47 +39:57:29.4 5) 64.725333 41.587028 04:18:54.08 +41:35:13.3 6) 59.555833 40.151139 03:58:13.40 +40:09:04.1 Pointing 7 (starting at 17:22 UTC and 21:22 UTC) 1) 68.908792 46.437806 04:35:38.11 +46:26:16.1 2) 66.516750 47.358250 04:26:04.02 +47:21:29.7 3) 69.395792 48.954111 04:37:34.99 +48:57:14.8 4) 68.421792 43.921500 04:33:41.23 +43:55:17.4 5) 71.300833 45.517361 04:45:12.20 +45:31:02.5 6) 65.573417 44.433722 04:22:17.62 +44:26:01.4 Pointing 8 (starting at 17:52 UTC and 21:52 UTC) 1) 76.256792 50.093972 05:05:01.63 +50:05:38.3 2) 73.881750 51.253417 04:55:31.62 +51:15:12.3 3) 77.159833 52.577833 05:08:38.36 +52:34:40.2 4) 75.353750 47.610111 05:01:24.90 +47:36:36.4 5) 78.631833 48.934528 05:14:31.64 +48:56:04.3 6) 72.434875 48.392333 04:49:44.37 +48:23:32.4 The observations cover roughly 200 square degrees in total. Each field was observed for a total of 53 min (2 x 26.5 min) with 10s time resolution after pre-processing. Analysis is ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20372 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117 / GW151226: LOFAR follow-up DATE: 17/01/05 19:15:14 GMT FROM: Antonia Rowlinson at Amsterdam and ASTRON A. Rowlinson (UvA, ASTRON), J. Broderick (ASTRON), P.G. Jonker (SRON/RU), R.P. Fender (Oxford), R.A.M.J. Wijers (UvA), B.W. Stappers (Manchester), S. ter Veen (ASTRON), S. Ghosh (RU), S. Nissanke (RU), A. Shulevski (ASTRON) report on behalf of the LOFAR Transients Key Science project On December 26, 2016, starting at 14:20 (UTC), we observed a large fraction of the localization error range of the Advanced LIGO trigger G211117 (GW151226) with the ILT (International Low-Frequency Array [LOFAR] Telescope). This is an additional set of LOFAR observations of these fields at 1 year following the detection. The observations were obtained with the High-Band Antennas (HBA) at a centre frequency of 145 MHz (bandwidth 15.6 MHz). We used 6 simultaneous beams on the sky, where each beam has a field of view of approximately 12 deg^2 (beam FWHM 3.9 degrees). The beam centres are given below: Pointing 1 (starting at 14:22 UTC and 18:22 UTC) 1) 39.750000 19.433333 02:39:00.00 +19:26:00.0 2) 37.478042 19.814500 02:29:54.73 +19:48:52.2 3) 39.056375 21.630111 02:36:13.53 +21:37:48.4 4) 40.443625 17.236556 02:41:46.47 +17:14:11.6 5) 42.021958 19.052167 02:48:05.27 +19:03:07.8 6) 37.817000 17.209667 02:31:16.08 +17:12:34.8 Pointing 2 (starting at 14:52 UTC and 18:52 UTC) 1) 43.523458 24.012694 02:54:05.63 +24:00:45.7 2) 41.204125 24.163000 02:44:48.99 +24:09:46.8 3) 42.663792 26.172056 02:50:39.31 +26:10:19.4 4) 44.383125 21.853333 02:57:31.95 +21:51:12.0 5) 45.842792 23.862389 03:03:22.27 +23:51:44.6 6) 41.683000 21.657000 02:46:43.92 +21:39:25.2 Pointing 3 (starting at 15:22 UTC and 19:22 UTC) 1) 47.347500 28.815800 03:09:23.40 +28:48:56.9 2) 45.035000 29.249472 03:00:08.40 +29:14:58.1 3) 46.833417 31.111750 03:07:20.02 +31:06:42.3 4) 47.861583 26.519861 03:11:26.78 +26:31:11.5 5) 49.660000 28.382139 03:18:38.40 +28:22:55.7 6) 45.311208 26.473306 03:01:14.69 +26:28:23.9 Pointing 4 (starting at 15:52 UTC and 19:52 UTC) 1) 51.762750 33.469417 03:27:03.06 +33:28:09.9 2) 49.412000 33.897167 03:17:38.88 +33:53:49.8 3) 51.335000 35.820194 03:25:20.40 +35:49:12.7 4) 52.190500 31.118639 03:28:45.72 +31:07:07.1 5) 54.113500 33.041667 03:36:27.24 +33:02:30.0 6) 49.550083 31.096639 03:18:12.02 +31:05:47.9 Pointing 5 (starting at 16:22 UTC and 20:22 UTC) 1) 56.818083 37.934167 03:47:16.34 +37:56:03.0 2) 54.463958 38.555972 03:37:51.35 +38:33:21.5 3) 56.699333 40.366111 03:46:47.84 +40:21:58.0 4) 56.936833 35.502222 03:47:44.84 +35:30:08.0 5) 59.172208 37.312361 03:56:41.33 +37:18:44.5 6) 54.117958 35.824611 03:36:28.31 +35:49:28.6 Pointing 6 (starting at 16:52 UTC and 20:52 UTC) 1) 62.380833 42.438778 04:09:31.40 +42:26:19.6 2) 60.036333 43.290528 04:00:08.72 +43:17:25.9 3) 62.643042 44.919389 04:10:34.33 +44:55:09.8 4) 62.118625 39.958167 04:08:28.47 +39:57:29.4 5) 64.725333 41.587028 04:18:54.08 +41:35:13.3 6) 59.555833 40.151139 03:58:13.40 +40:09:04.1 Pointing 7 (starting at 17:22 UTC and 21:22 UTC) 1) 68.908792 46.437806 04:35:38.11 +46:26:16.1 2) 66.516750 47.358250 04:26:04.02 +47:21:29.7 3) 69.395792 48.954111 04:37:34.99 +48:57:14.8 4) 68.421792 43.921500 04:33:41.23 +43:55:17.4 5) 71.300833 45.517361 04:45:12.20 +45:31:02.5 6) 65.573417 44.433722 04:22:17.62 +44:26:01.4 Pointing 8 (starting at 17:52 UTC and 21:52 UTC) 1) 76.256792 50.093972 05:05:01.63 +50:05:38.3 2) 73.881750 51.253417 04:55:31.62 +51:15:12.3 3) 77.159833 52.577833 05:08:38.36 +52:34:40.2 4) 75.353750 47.610111 05:01:24.90 +47:36:36.4 5) 78.631833 48.934528 05:14:31.64 +48:56:04.3 6) 72.434875 48.392333 04:49:44.37 +48:23:32.4 The observations cover roughly 200 square degrees in total. Each field was observed for a total of 53 min (2 x 26.5 min) with 10s time resolution after pre-processing. Analysis is ongoing.