TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 3027 SUBJECT: GRB 050215b: Swift XRT Observations DATE: 05/02/15 15:28:22 GMT FROM: David Burrows at PSU/Swift K. Page (U. Leicester), G. Tagliaferri, S. Campana, A. Moretti, C. Pagani, P. Romano, G. Chincarini (OAB), G. Cusumano, V. Mangano, V. La Parola (IASF/Palermo), D. N. Burrows, J. Kennea, J. E. Hill, J. A. Nousek (PSU), J. P. Osborne, M. Goad, A. Beardmore, A. F. Abbey, A. A. Wells (U. Leicester), P. Giommi, M. Capalbi, M. Perri, F. Tamburelli (ASDC), T. Sakamoto, L. Angelini, N. Gehrels (GSFC), W. Voges (MPE), L. Cominsky (Sonoma State U.), M. Tripicco (GSFC-SSAI), report on behalf of the Swift XRT team: The Swift BAT instrument detected GRB 050215b at 02:35:00 UT on 15 Feb 2005. The observatory executed an automated slew to the BAT position, but the XRT was in Manual State collecting calibration data and did not perform its normal automated GRB observing sequence. Furthermore, the satellite entered the SAA shortly after detecting this burst, and the XRT had data collection disabled until it exited the SAA at 03:03 to 03:10 UT, at which time the XRT was in Manual state and made observations in Windowed Timing (WT) mode. On the second orbit XRT collected data from 04:11 to 04:15 in Photon Counting (PC) mode, and from 04:44 to 04:47 in WT mode. (In between Swift was again located in the SAA). Observations continued in both WT and PC modes on subsequent orbits. With three orbits of PC mode data processed through the ground software, we find a faint, uncataloged X-ray source located 35 arcseconds from the BAT position at RA(J2000) = 11 37 46.1, Dec(J2000) = +40 47 54.3. The XRT alignment calibration is still in progress. We estimate a systematic uncertainty in this position of 6 arc seconds radius. However, the lightcurve of this source, in both WT and PC mode, does NOT appear to be fading, although the source is extremely weak and the statistics are not good enough yet for an accurate determination. GRB050215b remains the Swift Automated Target, and we expect to continue monitoring operations for the next 12 hours.