TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 5528 SUBJECT: GRB 060906: Swift detection of a probable burst DATE: 06/09/06 09:12:48 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC J. L. Racusin (PSU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), D. N. Burrows (PSU), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), C. Guidorzi (Univ Bicocca&INAF-OAB), S. D. Hunsberger (PSU), V. Mangano (INAF-IASFPA), D. C. Morris (PSU), K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL), E. Rol (U Leicester), P. Romano (INAF-OAB), G. Sato (GSFC/ISAS), M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU) and H. Z. Ziaeepour (UCL-MSSL) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 08:32:46 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 060906 (trigger=228316). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA,Dec 40.748, +30.349 {02h 42m 60s, +30d 20' 58"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve is complicated by the fact that the spacecraft was slewing just prior to the image trigger. There appears to be an ~5 sec wide peak starting at T_zero. There are possibly two smaller peaks at T-15 and T-21 sec, but these are during the slew and may be caused by the slew. The peak count rate is ~1000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~5 sec after the trigger. The XRT began taking data at 08:35:15 UT, 148 seconds after the BAT trigger. The XRT on-board centroid algorithm did not find a source in the image but ground analysis of 5 seconds of flight data available at this time reveals a possible faint source at the following coordinates: RA(J2000): 2h 43m 00.9s Dec(J2000): +30 21 38.95 with an error of 8 arcseconds (90% confidence). Further analysis of ground data is necessary to determine the properties of the possible source. UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 100 seconds with the White (160-650 nm) filter starting 152 seconds after the BAT trigger. No afterglow candidate has been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 25% of the BAT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 18.5 mag. The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the BAT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.20. We will have the full data set downlinked and processed by ~11:00 UT.