TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 7601 SUBJECT: GRB 080413B: VLT redshift DATE: 08/04/13 10:58:47 GMT FROM: Daniele Malesani at Niels Bohr Inst,Dark Cosmology Center Paul M. Vreeswijk, Christina C. Thoene, Daniele Malesani, Johan P. U. Fynbo, Jens Hjorth (DARK/NBI), Pall Jakobsson (Univ. Hertfordshire), Nial R. Tanvir (Univ. Leicester), and Andrew J. Levan (Univ. Warwick), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the afterglow of the possibly short GRB 080413B (Stamatikos et al., GCN 7598) with the ESO VLT equipped with FORS1. A 600 s spectrum centered on Apr 13.403 UT (49.5 min after the GRB) was acquired covering the range 3500-9000 AA. From detection of numerous absorption features, including Fe II, Mg II and Mg I lines, we infer a redshift z = 1.10. In particular, we detect the Fe II 2396 fine-structure line, which confirms this redshift is very likely that of the host of the GRB. We acknowledge excellent support from the VLT staff, particularly Thomas Szeifert, Jose Cortes, and Gianni Marconi.