“Gamma Ray Burst Info”

On 10 July 2008, a bright flash of extragalactic gamma-rays was detected by the Swift satellite observatory. This Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) is of the long type associated with core collapse of massive stars. Information about this GRB was automatically sent to the PROMPT telescope array in Chile by the Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network and SKYNET. There the burst was monitored in B, V, R, and I bands by three of the five telescopes, starting 64 seconds after the initial flash. We will talk about the image reduction and analysis of these images toward making light curves of the optical afterglow using the 900 images obtained by the PROMPT array.

Elise Weaver is currently a graduate student in Physics/Engineering and graduate assistant at Appalachian State University, and researching under Dr. Dan Caton, the director of the Dark Sky Observatory. She recently graduated from Guilford College with a BS in Physics with a concentration in Astronomy where she worked in the J. Donald Cline Observatory located on the roof of the Frank Family Science center. While at Guilford College she worked with Dr. Daniel Reichart of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill chasing Gamma Ray Bursts. For seven years she has been working with the Don Cline Observatory at Guilford Technical Community College, first as a student, then as an observatory host.