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IAUC 6789: GRB 971214; XTE J0053-724

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                                                 Circular No. 6789
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


GRB 971214
     R. M. Kippen and P. Woods, University of Alabama in Huntsville
and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC); and V. Connaughton,
National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council and MSFC,
for the CGRO BATSE team; and D. A. Smith, A. M. Levine, and R.
Remillard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the RXTE-ASM
team; and K. Hurley, University of California at Berkeley, for the
Ulysses team report: "The GRB detected by BeppoSAX (IAUC 6787) also
triggered CGRO-BATSE on Dec. 14.97274 UT (trigger no. 6533).  The
BATSE event consists of a complex series of pulses lasting about 40
s, with an estimated total fluence above 20 keV of 1.09 (+/- 0.07)
x 10E-5 erg cmE-2 and a peak flux, occurring at trigger + 13 s, of
1.95 (+/- 0.05) photons cmE-2 sE-1 (50-300 keV; 1.024-s
integration).  The burst was detected by Ulysses, yielding a
preliminary joint BATSE/Ulysses Interplanetary Network (IPN) timing
annulus of radius 53.762 deg, halfwidth 0.091 deg, and center at
R.A. = 11h25m19s, Decl. = +11o43'.2 (equinox 2000.0).  The entire
duration of the event was also observed by a single RXTE-ASM
camera, which detected a flux enhancement lasting 50 s and reaching
a peak intensity of 470 +/- 140 mCrab (1.5-12 keV; 1-s integration),
15 s after the BATSE trigger.  The single-camera ASM detection
yields a localization region of dimensions 4.4 deg x 0.2 deg,
centered at R.A. = 12h03m41s, Decl. = +64o54'.7, with the following
corners:  R.A. = 12h20m08s, Decl. = +63o47'.5; 12h21m04s,
+63o57'.5; 11h44m59s, +65o56'.9; 11h45m08s, +65o43'.9.  The
intersection of the ASM and IPN localizations overlaps the location
provided by BeppoSAX given on IAUC 6787.  A sky-map of this event
showing the various locations is available at
http://www.batse.msfc.nasa.gov/~kippen/batserbr/brbr_obs.html."


XTE J0053-724
     D. A. H. Buckley, South African Astronomical Observatory; M.
J. Coe and J. B. Stevens, Southampton University; L. Angelini and
N. E. White, Goddard Space Flight Center; and P. Giommi, SAX/SDC,
communicate that the SMC source reported on IAUC 6777 and 6788 is
in fact the same object as the variable source 1WGA J0053.8-7226,
which is identified as the x-ray counterpart to a Be star in the
Small Magellanic Cloud.  They add:  "The optical source has V =
14.9, exhibits strong H-alpha emission (EW = -1.3 nm), and has a
clear infrared excess.  Infrared measurements taken in Nov. 1995
and Oct. 1996 show a large infrared increase, probably related to
this recent x-ray outburst."

                      (C) Copyright 1997 CBAT
1997 December 16               (6789)            Daniel W. E. Green

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