TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  4842
SUBJECT: GRB060218/SN 2006aj:   optical observation
DATE:    06/02/28 10:44:29 GMT
FROM:    Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow  <apozanen@iki.rssi.ru>

E. Pavlenko,  Yu. Efimov, A. Shlyapnikov, V.Rumyantsev (CrAO), A.Pozanenko
(IKI) on behalf of a larger collaboration report:

We observed GRB 060218/SN 2006aj  (Cusumano et al. GCN 4775) with CrAO Shajn
2.6m telescope  on Feb. 23. A series of   BVRI 30 s exposures were taken
starting (UT) 19:27.

Using SDSS pre-burst observations (Cool et al. GCN 4777) we estimate
brightness of the optical afterglow + SN in R:


Mid  time,      exp.,   R mag
(UT)            (s)
Feb.23  19:32  8x30 s   17.40 +/- 0.01
Feb.23  19:58  8x30 s   17.41 +/- 0.01

The values is compatible with the brightening rate ~0.2 per day between Feb.
20 and Feb. 23 reported earlier (Ovaldsen et al, GCN 4818, Pavlenko et al,
GCN 4838).