TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 7143 SUBJECT: GRB 071208?: Swift detection of a possible burst DATE: 07/12/08 12:55:02 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC S. R. Oates (UCL-MSSL), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), D. N. Burrows (PSU), S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL), A. M. Parsons (GSFC) and T. N. Ukwatta (GSFC/GWU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 12:28:14 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located a possible GRB 071208 (trigger=298308). Swift did not slew because of the Sun observing constraint. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 266.112, +7.535 which is RA(J2000) = 17h 44m 27s Dec(J2000) = +07d 32' 05" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows a very weak bump riding on top of a background grazing the SAA. At this time we can not determine whether this is a noise fluctuation in the image domain or a burst. We need to wait for the full data set to be downlinked to make that determination. This position is moving deeper into the Sun observing constraint, so the XRT and UVOT will be unable to observe for a number of weeks. Burst Advocate for this burst is S. R. Oates (sro AT mssl.ucl.ac.uk). Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)