TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 8058 SUBJECT: GRB 080804: UVES redshift DATE: 08/08/05 03:21:55 GMT FROM: Antonio Deugarte at IAA-CSIC Christina C. Thoene (DARK/NBI), Antonio de Ugarte Postigo (ESO), PaulM. Vreeswijk, Daniele Malesani (DARK/NBI), Palli Jakobsson (Univ. Hertfordshire) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the afterglow of GRB 080804 (Racusin et al., GCN 8057; Rujopakarn & Rykoff, GCN 8056) with the UVES high-resolution spectrograph at the VLT. Observations started on 2008 Aug 5.008 UT (50 min after the GRB). We obtained two spectra with exposure times of 30 and 45 minutes. The spectra cover the wavelength range from 3500 to 9460 Angstroms. We detect a strong DLA as well as a large range of absorption lines including SiII, SII, OI, CII, AlII, MgI and SiII* from which we derive a redshift of z=2.2045. We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Paranal, including Swetlana Hubrig, Thomas Rivinius, and Yuri Belestky. We are especially indebted to Swetlana Hubrig and Martin Netopil for using part of their telescope time.