TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  14491
SUBJECT: GRB 130427A: VLT/X-shooter redshift confirmation
DATE:    13/04/28 15:05:53 GMT
FROM:    Hector Flores at Obs.de Paris,Meudon  <hector.flores@obspm.fr>

GRB 130427A: VLT/X-shooter redshift confirmation

H. Flores (Obs. de Paris), S. Covino (INAF), D. Xu, T. Kruehler,
J. Fynbo, B. Milvang-Jensen(DARK/NBI), A. de Ugarte Postigo (IAA-CSIC,
DARK/NBI), L. Kaper (UVA) and  K. Wiersema (U. Leicester) report on behalf
of the X-shooter GRB collaboration:

VLT/X-shooter observed the afterglow of GRB 130427A (Maselli et al.,
GCN 14448; Elenin et al., GCN 14450), starting on 2013-04-28 at UT
00:23. The observation consisted of 2x600s exposures.

In the spectra we detect the continuum in the complete range from 3000
to 24800 A. We find several absorption features including FeII, MnII,
MgII, MgI, TiII, CaII, NaI, and emission lines such as H-alpha,
H-beta,  [OIII], and [OII], all at a common redshift of z=0.3399 +/- 0.0002,
consistent with the measurement in Levan et al. (GCN 14455) and
Xu et al. (GCN 14478).

We thank the Paranal staff for excellent support, in particular Andrea
Mehner and Christophe Martayan.