TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  3197
SUBJECT: GRB 050408: steepening of the optical decay
DATE:    05/04/09 01:29:19 GMT
FROM:    Alberto Castro-Tirado at LAEFF-INTA  <ajct@laeff.esa.es>

M. Jelinek (IAA-CSIC Granada),  T. Fathkullin, V. Komarova,
T. Sokolova, V. Sokolov, V. Vlasyuk, Yu. Balega (SAO RAS,
Russia), S. Guziy (Univ. of Nikolaev), A. de Ugarte Postigo,
J. Gorosabel and A.J. Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC Granada),

report:

Further monitoring of the optical source reported by de
Ugarte Postigo et al. (GCNC 3192), confirms a steepening
of the optical decline, when comparing to the Huang et al. 
results (GCNC 3196). From the first frame obtained at the 6m 
SAO RAS telescope on Apr 8, 18:49 UT (this value supersedes
the one given on GCN 3192) to the last one (at 21:38 UT),
the object has declined significantly, implying a decay
index alpha of -1.6 .  An ID-chart is posted at:
http://sirrah.cz/mates/grb050408.jpg .