The 0.9 meter data was obtained by George Jacoby and by Bruce Carney. The WIYN data was obtained by Art Code and Chuck Claver. We reached limiting magnitude around V=19. Note that no confirmed counterparts have been detected for this burst. The 970616 burst was unfavorably placed for optical observations, with airmass > 2 at morning twilight and a nearly full moon to make matters worse. Nonetheless, we believe our photometry presents the earliest upper limits on optical transients associated with this burst, and so may be of value.
If you use our data in a publication,
we ask you to kindly include the following
acknowledgement:
This work uses photometry obtained by the Kitt Peak National Observatory
followup team for GRB 970616 (Ted von Hippel, Bruce Carney, George Jacoby,
Art Code, and Chuck Claver) using the KPNO 0.9 meter
and WIYN telescopes.
Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy
Observatories, is operated by the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with
the National Science Foundation.
The WIYN Observatory is a joint facility of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University, Yale University, and the National
Optical Astronomy Observatories.
IAU Circular links here are only accessible from the NOAO network; sorry.
IAU Circulars numbers 6683, 6687, 6688, 6690, 6691, 6691, 6696, and 6697.
Images obtained by the Ogle 2 collaboration (Udalski et al; IAUC 6690) can be obtained from either Warsaw or Princeton; these cover the UT dates June 22.4 through 25.431 and June 30.4. Udalski et al report one faint, fading source that appears not to be related to the GRB. For more information see their IAU circular.