TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  7391
SUBJECT: GRB 080310: VLT/UVES spectroscopy
DATE:    08/03/10 10:47:31 GMT
FROM:    Paul Vreeswijk at Dark Cosmology Centre,U.of Copenhagen  <pmv@dark-cosmology.dk>

P.M. Vreeswijk (DARK), P. Jakobsson (U. Hertfordshire), A.O. Jaunsen
(U. Oslo) and C. Ledoux (ESO) report on behalf of a larger
collaboration:

We observed the optical afterglow (Chornock et al., GCN 7381) of GRB
080310 (Cummings et al., GCN 7382) with the Ultraviolet and Visual
Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) mounted at ESO's VLT Kueyen. Observations
were triggered automatically in rapid-response mode starting on 2008
March 10 at 08:51 UT (13 min after the Swift trigger). We secured two
epochs over the full UVES wavelength range before morning twilight.

Most absorption lines can be explained by three systems at redshifts
z=2.43, z=2.28, and z=1.67, confirming the probable redshift of
GRB080310 first reported by Prochaska et al. (GCN 7388).

We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Paranal,
in particular Dominique Naef and Claudio Melo.