Updated 26.10.2007
The first GRB afterglow has been observed at Taurus Hill Observatory when our research team members Veli-Pekka Hentunen, Markku Nissinen and Henri Taino observed the afterglow of the GRB 071020 Saturday 20./21.10.2007 23:39:18-00:23:55 (UT). Here is the official report about the observation.
Report:
Object: GRB 071020
Observers: Markku Nissinen, Henri Taino and Veli-Pekka Hentunen
Date: 20./21.10.2007
Time: 23:39:18-00:23:55 (UT)
The site of the observation: Taurus Hill Observatory (A95), Härkämäki, Kangaslampi, FINLAND
Equipment: Paramount ME + Meade 12″ LX200GPS UHTC OTA + SBIG ST8-XME
Exposure information: 2×240 sec. exposure and 2×600 sec exposure combined to one picture, binning 1, autoguider
Filter: clear
Temperature: -3 C
Seeing: 2
Transparency: 2
Background sky darkness: 2
We compared the GRB 071020 to nearest star that was the star 0247201072 of the GSC1.2 catalog. The calculated magnitude of the GRB 071020 was then CRmag=20.9.
The place of the object was calculated with Maxim PinPoint and the co-ordinates we got were: RA 7:58:39.86 and Dec 32:51:40.2. The reference catalog that was used was GSC 1.1 (corrected) catalog. The POSSII.F.DSS -picture (optical R) did not indicated any object in the calculated co-ordinates. The object was about 44 degree high at the moment of the observation. There has been some speculates that this could be the furthest object that has been observed by a finnish (amateur) astronomer. The estimated distance is about 12 billion light years (red shift, z = 2.5).
We wish to give big thanks to Arto Oksanen, who helped with the making the report.
The observation is also published in the GCN Circulars -series. The direct link is http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/6981.gcn3.
The field of view is 4,7 x 3,5 arc minutes. The galaxy in the middle of the picture is PGC22363.
The detailed picture about the GRB 071020. Picture: Taurus Hill Observatory (Edited by Harri Haukka, THO).
