TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 5926 SUBJECT: GRB 061217: Swift detection of a short hard burst DATE: 06/12/17 04:01:22 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), D. N. Burrows (PSU), M. M. Chester (PSU), J. R. Cummings (NASA/UMBC), P. A. Evans (U Leicester), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), O. Godet (U Leicester), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL), M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU) and R. L. C. Starling (U Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 03:40:08 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 061217 (trigger=251634). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 160.442, -21.118 which is RA(J2000) = 10h 41m 46s Dec(J2000) = -21d 07' 05" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows a single spike of approximately 400 msec duration. The peak count rate was ~4500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. The XRT began taking data at 03:41:12 UT, 64 seconds after the BAT trigger. The XRT on-board centroid algorithm did not find a source in the image and no source is detected in 17 s of promptly available photon counting mode data. We are waiting for down-linked data to detect and determine a position for the source. Initial data products were not received from the UVOT because it was not in its normal observing configuration at the time of the BAT trigger. The UVOT returned to its normal configuration at 03:46:15. Data are expected in approximately 2.5 hours.