TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  7940
SUBJECT: GRB 080703: VLT observations of the afterglow
DATE:    08/07/04 10:58:08 GMT
FROM:    Daniele Malesani at Niels Bohr Inst,Dark Cosmology Center  <malesani@astro.ku.dk>

D. Malesani, P. M. Vreeswijk, J. P. U. Fynbo, J. Hjorth (DARK/NBI), P. 
Jakobsson (Univ. Hertfordshire), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We observed the field of GRB 080703 (Ziaeepour et al., GCN 7936) with 
the ESO VLT equipped with FORS1. Due to visibility constraints, 
observations could only be carried out during twilight at high airmass.

The optical afterglow first reported by Rykoff & Schaefer (GCN 7935; see 
also Ziaeepour et al., GCN 7936) is detected in our image (15 s 
exposure). On 2008 Jul 3.948 UT (3.76 hr after the GRB), the afterglow 
had R ~ 21.6 assuming R = 15.92 for the USNO star at (06:47:12.61, 
-63:12:31.7).

A finding chart is posted at

http://www.astro.ku.dk/~malesani/GRB/080703/080703_finder.png

No further observations are planned. We acknowledge excellent support 
from the ESO staff in executing this challenging observation, 
particularly Thomas Szeifert and Dominique Naef.