TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  3211
SUBJECT: GRB 050408: Mercator Optical Observations
DATE:    05/04/09 23:43:33 GMT
FROM:    Klaas Wiersema at GRACE/U of Amsterdam  <kwrsema@science.uva.nl>

P. Curran, K. Wiersema (University of Amsterdam), K. Lefever, H. van
Winckel, C. Waelkens (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), O. van Braam, Y.
Grange, R. de Rooij, A. de Vries, L. Waters, (University of Amsterdam),
G.Bourban, G.Burki, F.Carrier (Geneva Observatory), E. Rol (University of
Leicester)

report:

"On 09 April we continued our observations (GCN 3200) of the
optical afterglow reported by de Ugarte Postigo et al. (GCN 3193) of the
HETE-2 GRB 050408 (Sakamoto et al., GCN 3189) at the 1.2m Mercator
Telescope at La Palma.

The R-band observation started at 05:15 UT and consisted of 2 x 8 minute
exposures, with midpoint 13.02h after burst.
We calibrated our photometry using the USNO-B catalogue.
We find a marginal R-band detection of 22.3 +/- 0.3.

We thank the staff of the Mercator Telescope for the excellent
assistance."