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TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  8350
SUBJECT: GRB 081008: VLT redshift confirmation 
DATE:    08/10/09 16:10:20 GMT
FROM:    Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB  <paolo.davanzo@brera.inaf.it>

P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (INAF-OAR), S. Covino (INAF-OAB) 
report, on behalf of the MISTICI collaboration:

We observed the optical afterglow of GRB 081008 (Rykoff, GCN 8343; 
Racusin et al., GCN 8344), with the ESO VLT on Oct 09 starting about 4.5 
hours after the burst with UVES. In the UVES spectrum  we clearly detect 
the Ly-alpha around lambda 3600 A at a redshift z = 1.96, further 
analysis of this spectrum are ongoing. In light of this, from a refined 
analysis of our VLT/FORS2 spectrum of this GRB (D'Avanzo et al. GCN 
8345), we can identify the metal lines reported by Cucchiara et al. (GCN 
8346) and the absorption lines CrII(2056, 2062,2066) and ZnII(2062) all 
at a redshift z = 1.9685.

Our results are thus in agreement with what reported by Cucchiara et al.