TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  33360
SUBJECT: GRB 230217A: Gemini South optical upper limits
DATE:    23/02/21 07:27:44 GMT
FROM:    Eleonora Troja at GSFC  <eleonora.troja@nasa.gov>

E. Troja (UTV) and B. O’Connor (GWU) report:



We inspected the GMOS-S observations of the short GRB 230217A reported in
O’Connor et al. (GCN Circ. 33356). At the position of the radio source
(Schroeder et al., GCN Circ 33358) coincident with the X-ray source #3
(Capalbi et al. GCN Circ. 33348), no optical counterpart is detected down
to i>23 AB mag, not corrected for Galactic extinction. The lack of optical
detection does not rule out an afterglow origin for the X-ray source and
remains consistent with a power-law spectrum with slope beta_OX < 0.6.
Further observations are encouraged to establish variability.



Our images do not cover the position of the X-ray/radio source #5, which
lies just outside the BAT error circle.



We thank the staff of the Gemini Observatory for assistance in rapidly
obtaining these observations.