TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1882 SUBJECT: GRB 030226 Optical Spectra and R,I,z' Imaging DATE: 03/02/26 09:30:11 GMT FROM: Nobuyuki Kawai at Tokyo Tech <nkawai@hp.phys.titech.ac.jp> M. Ando, K. Ohta, C. Watanabe (Kyoto Univ.), K. Aoki, Y. Ohyama, K. S. Kawabata, S. Harasawa, D. Scarla (Subaru NAOJ), and N. Kawai (Tokyo Tech) report: We have obtained optical images and optical spectra of the afterglow of GRB030226 (=H10893) with FOCAS attached to Subaru 8.2m on Mauna Kea. R-, I-, and z'-band images taken at Feb 26.29 (UT) reveal the presence of the optical afterglow with an R magnitude of ~17.8 mag. We derived a position of RA=11:33:04.9, Dec=+25:53:55 (J2000) with an accuracy of 1" using the USNO A-2.0 catalog. We have also taken optical spectra covering wavelength regions of 3700-6000 A and 5800-10000 A at Feb 26.31 (UT) with an exposure time of 20 min. each. The spectral resolutions are about R=1000. The optical spectra show intergalactic absorption lines clearly; roughly derived the highest redshift absorbers are MgII 2800 and CVI 1550 at z=2.1, indicating that a redshift of GRB 030226 is 2.1 or larger. This message may be cited.
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