TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 9621 SUBJECT: GRB 090708: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 09/07/08 03:48:33 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC H. A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), P. A. Evans (U Leicester), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), C. B. Markwardt (CRESST/GSFC/UMD), K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL), A. Rowlinson (U Leicester), T. Sakamoto (NASA/UMBC), M. H. Siegel (PSU), M. A. Stark (PSU), T. N. Ukwatta (GSFC/GWU) and L. Vetere (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 03:38:15 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 090708 (trigger=356776). Swift did not slew because of Sun constraint. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 154.629, +26.637 which is RA(J2000) = 10h 18m 31s Dec(J2000) = +26d 38' 12" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows single peak with a duration of about 20 sec. The peak count rate was ~900 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~3 sec after the trigger. Due to an observing constraint, Swift cannot slew to the BAT position, and it will not be observable until early October. There will thus be no XRT or UVOT data for this trigger. Burst Advocate for this burst is H. A. Krimm (krimm AT milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov). 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.)