------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3117 2015 Oct 21 10.03UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074 INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.theastronomer.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- GRB 151021A: OPTICAL COUNTERPART A Melandri (INAF-OAB and Burst Advocate) advises on GRB 18425 that at 01:29:12 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 151021A. Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is: RA 22h 30m 27s Dec -33d 11' 55" (2000). The BAT light curve showed a complex multi-peaked structure with a duration of at least 100 sec. The peak count rate was 2500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at 10 sec after the trigger, although the lightcurve around the time of trigger is not immediately available. The XRT began observing the field at 01:30:43.2 UT, 90.7 seconds after the BAT trigger finding an uncatalogued and bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located at: RA 22h 30m 35.09s Dec -33d 11' 56.7" (2000) On GCN 18427 V. Lipunoc et. al. Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute reports that MASTER II robotic telescope located in SAAO was pointed to the GRB151021A, 25 sec after notice time and 50 sec after trigger time at 2015-10-21 01:30:06 UT in two polarizations. On their first (10s exposure) set they found 1 optical transient within SWIFT error-box (Melandri et. al GCN 18425) brighter than 16: date time Tmid-T0 Coord2000 Mag 2015-10-21 01:30:06 55.0 22h 30m 34.42s , -33d 11m 50.3s 14.86 TA observers are encouraged, as discussed at the recent TA meeting, to investigate if any robotic telescopes are available to obtain further urgent photometry. Please relay any results to the editor. Guy M Hurst