TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 8601 SUBJECT: GRB081203A: Swift/UVOT grism redshift DATE: 08/12/03 19:36:15 GMT FROM: Wayne Landsman at GSFC/SSAI W. Landsman (NASA/GSFC), M. DePasquale(MSSL), P. Kuin (MSSL), P. Schady (MSSL), P. Smith (MSSL), and A.Parsons (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT obtained a 49s UV grism spectrum of GRB 081203A starting 249 s after the BAT trigger (Parsons et al. GCN.8595). The spectrum covers the wavelength range from 2000-4900 A. Longward of 2850 A in the quicklook spectrum there is an approximately flat continuum of 2.5e-14 erg s-1 cm-2 A-1 with a strong absorption at 3850 A. If the 2850 A cutoff is identified with the Lyman edge, and the 3850 A absorption with Lyman alpha, then the redshift of GRB081203A is ~2.1. Analysis is continuing.