TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  7313
SUBJECT: GRB 080218: Swift detection of a burst
DATE:    08/02/18 20:18:57 GMT
FROM:    Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC  <scott@lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov>

H. Ziaeepour (UCL-MSSL), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC),
J. R. Cummings (NASA/UMBC), P. A. Evans (U Leicester),
S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
W. B. Landsman (NASA/GSFC), K. M. McLean (GSFC/UMD), C. Pagani (PSU),
D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (NASA/UMBC), G. Sato (GSFC/ISAS),
M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU), D. E. Vanden Berk (PSU), L. Vetere (PSU)
and P. A. Ward (MSSL-UCL) report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 20:08:42 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 080218 (trigger=303609).  Swift did not slew to the burst
location because of the Sun observing constraint (34 deg from the Sun). 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 355.922, +12.175 which is 
   RA(J2000)  =  23h 43m 41s
   Dec(J2000) = +12d 10' 29"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve shows a weak peak around T_0. 
The peak count rate was ~400 counts/sec (15-350 keV). 

Because this burst is in the Sun constraint until May,
no XRT or UVOT data will be available. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is H. Ziaeepour (hz AT mssl.ucl.ac.uk). 
Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information
regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after
trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see
Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)