TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER: 1904
SUBJECT: GRB 030227: optical candidate to the XMM-Newton X-ray source
DATE: 03/02/27 01:30:00 GMT
FROM: Alberto Castro-Tirado at Inst. de Astrofísica de Andalucía

GRB 030227, optical candidate to the XMM-Newton source ------------------------------------------------

A.J. Castro-Tirado, D. Reverte, J. Vílchez (IAA-CSIC)
J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC/STScI),
J. M. Castro Cerón (STScI),
A. de Ugarte, S. Guziy (IAA-CSIC)

report:

"We have imaged a 30' x 30' region centred on the INTEGRAL error box for GRB 020327 (Gotz et al. GCN Circ. 1895, 1896) with the 2.5-m Isaac Newton telescope at Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (Canary Islands, Spain). One B-band frame and one R-band frame (600-s exposure time each) were obtained on Feb 27.872 UT (i.e. 12.2 hours after the GRB) under good meteorological conditions. Within the X-ray source error box given by XMM-Newton (Loiseau et al. GCN Circ. 1901) we find a point-like object (R = 22.5 preliminarly) which is also marginally detected in the B-band frame. Coordinates yield AR(2000) = 04 57 33.05, Dec(2000) = +20 29 03.5 (preliminary, +/- 1"). Further observations are needed to confirm whether this object is the optical afterglow to GRB 030227. The object reported by Ofek and Gal-Yam (GCN Circ. 1903) is also detected in our images with R about 22.5. An image of the field is posted at: www.iaa.csic.es/~ajct/GRBs/grb030227."
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