TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 8703 SUBJECT: Swift/UVOT observations of GRB 081221 DATE: 08/12/22 14:56:47 GMT FROM: Paul Kuin at MSSL N. P. M. Kuin (MSSL/UCL) and E. A. Hoversten (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift UVOT team. The Swift UltraViolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) began settled observations of GRB081221 (Swift BAT trigger number 337889, Hoversten et al., GCN Circ. 8687), on December 21, 2008, at 16:22:29, 78 seconds after the trigger with a white finding chart. We do not detect any new source at the enhanced XRT position reported in GCN Circ. 8690 (Evans et al.). The observed magnitude upper limits for GRB 081221 are given below for the first observations and the summed exposures in the UVOT filters: Filter Tstart(s) Tstop(s) Exp(s) Magnitude wh 78 228 149.8 >20.84 (3-sigma UL) v 619 639 19.4 >17.89 (3-sigma UL) b 545 565 19.4 >18.85 (3-sigma UL) u 290 540 245.8 >20.15 (3-sigma UL) uvw1 668 688 19.4 >18.10 (3-sigma UL) uvm2 644 664 19.5 >17.71 (3-sigma UL) uvw2 595 615 19.4 >18.08 (3-sigma UL) wh 78 6086 381.0 >21.41 (3-sigma UL) v 59 34696 2192.4 >20.74 (3-sigma UL) b 545 41269 1765.2 >21.55 (3-sigma UL) u 290 40478 3667.7 >21.69 (3-sigma UL) uvw1 668 39565 3758.4 >21.57 (3-sigma UL) uvm2 644 45178 3409.4 >21.55 (3-sigma UL) uvw2 595 33783 2005.6 >21.35 (3-sigma UL) The values quoted above are on the UVOT Photometric System (Poole et al, 2008, MNRAS 383,627). They are not corrected for the expected galactic reddening of E(B-V) = 0.021 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998).