GAMMA RAY BURST
Optical Transient

At 13:10:12 UT on 10/08/2008, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 080810.  I received a notice on the email and fired up the observatory.  It was not until 13:47:01 UT that I was able to take my first images.  The optical transient was initially estimated to be at magnitude 14.7.  I used MPO Canopus to determine a magnitude of 16.78 for my first image.  I continued to image the optical transient until it was no longer visible.

The 1st image is below.  Its actually a stack of 34 x 3 second exposures out of 50 images.  The rest where rejected due to wind and other technical issues.  Also the image quality is poor as the event too place to the north relative to BDI observatory where I get light pollution from the City of Sydney. 

The 2nd image is a raw, uncalibrated lightcurve for the dimming of the O.T.  It spans 13:47UT to 16:34UT