IAU02186
Presentation type requested: EITHER
GRB AFTERGLOW OBSERVATIONS WITH SMALL TELESCOPES, 2002--2003
Hitoshi Yamaoka
Department of Physics, Kyushu University
A Gamma-ray burst (GRB) is a very luminous transient object at the cosmological distance, so is the most promissing probe for exploring the early universe. The GRB optical afterglow generally declines with a power law of the time but shows some complex variabilities (plateau, bump, and so on), which supply useful information surrounding the GRB. Within one day of the explosion, the afterglow can be detected even with the small telescopes (several tens cm aperture). They can play a critical role in drawing its light curve especially in the southern hemisphere, where the observatories for optical follow-up are rather sparse. Here we present the optical observations of some GRB afterglows with small (25 -- 60 cm) telescopes in Japan during 2002 Summer -- 2003 Spring (see Yamaoka {\it et al.} (2002) for previous results). Especially we detected that of GRB 021004 in good statistics. Our coverage was crucial for determining the light variations within a few hours after the burst.
Kato Taichi , Uemura Makoto , Ishioka Ryoko , Ohashi Hiroyuki , Senda Takafumi , Mii Haruka , Mizuno Keiko , Yasuda Toshiro , Aramaki Keiko
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