TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4974 SUBJECT: VLT/UVES observations of GRB060418 DATE: 06/04/18 12:10:35 GMT FROM: Paul Vreeswijk at ESO Paul Vreeswijk (U. of Chile/ESO) and Andreas Jaunsen (U. of Oslo) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "Following the Swift detection of GRB060418 (Falcone et al., GCN 4966), we triggered observations with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES), mounted at Kueyen (UT2) of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). The observations were performed using the Rapid-Response Mode, which allows for robotic VLT observations without any human intervention, except for the slit alignment. Starting at 3:16 UT (10min after the Swift/BAT trigger), a series of exposures with increasing integration times (3, 5, 10, 20, and 40min) were performed with central wavelengths 390nm in the blue arm and 564nm in the red, covering 330-670nm at a resolving power of ~43000. This was followed by a 90min exposure with central wavelengths 437nm in the blue and 860nm in the red, extending the wavelength coverage up to 950nm. A preliminary analysis of the spectra shows various absorption features, which can be identified with typical metal lines originating in at least four intervening absorbers at redshifts: z=0.602, z=0.655, z=1.106 and the highest at z=1.489. This confirms the GRB060418 host-galaxy redshift determination by Dupree et al. (GCN 4969). We are very grateful for the excellent support of the Paranal staff, and in particular that of Stefano Bagnulo, Nancy Ageorges and Stan Stefl."