LIGO/Virgo G298048: Etelman Observatory observation of the potential LIGO EM counterpart SSS17a

B. Gendre, A. Cucchiara, D. Morris, N. B. Orange, D. Drost, T. Giblin, J. Hakkila, A. Klotz, J. Neff, D. Smith, J. Staff, P. Thierry, R. Watlington

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle in specialist publication

Abstract

We observed the field of SSS17a (Coulter et al., GCN 21529; Allam et al., GCN 21530; Yang et al., GCN 21531), the potential counterpart of the LIGO/Virgo event G298048 (GCN 21509), with the 0.5m Virgin Island Robotic Telescope (VIRT) on August the 19th, starting at 23:19 UT. We performed a series of exposures in the R and Clear filters, with an elevation decreasing from 40 degrees. The weather conditions were good, with a mean seeing of 2-3 arcsec. We detect an excess at the position of the potential counterpart in C filter at 23:54 UT. Strong contamination from the nearby galaxy prevents a precise brightness estimate without galaxy substraction. Further analysis is in progress. The VIRT is still in its commissioning phase. This message can be cited.
Original languageEnglish
Volume21609
Specialist publicationGRB Coordinates Network, Circular Service
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2017
Externally publishedYes

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