TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22384 SUBJECT: GRB 180205A: VLT/X-shooter redshift DATE: 18/02/05 10:09:25 GMT FROM: Nial Tanvir at U.Leicester N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), K. E. Heintz (U. Iceland, DARK/NBI), J. Selsing (DARK/NBI), J. Japelj (API, U. Amsterdam), J. Bolmer (ESO/MPE), D. A. Kann (HETH/IAA-CSIC), D. Xu (NAOC), A. de Ugarte Postigo (HETH/IAA-CSIC and DARK/NBI), D. Malesani (DARK/NBI), J. P. U. Fynbo (NBI), G. Pugliese (API, U. Amsterdam) report on behalf of the STARGATE Consortium: We observed the bright optical counterpart of the Swift GRB 180205A (Evans et al. GCN 22381; Zheng et al. GCN 22382; Bolmer et al. GCN 22383) with the ESO Very Large Telescope UT 2 (Kueyen) equipped with the X-shooter spectrograph, covering the wavelength range 3500-24000 AA. Observations started on February 05.25 UT (approx 1.5 hr after the GRB) and consisted of 4 exposures of 600 s each. The spectrum exhibits many absorption features including C II, Si II, Si II*, Al II, Fe II, Mg II, Mg I at a common redshift of z=1.409. We conclude this is the redshift of the GRB. We acknowledge the expert support from the ESO observing staff, in particular Jesus Corral-Santana and Cedric Ledoux.