TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  6698
SUBJECT: GRB 070802: VLT redshift
DATE:    07/08/02 10:22:41 GMT
FROM:    Daniele Malesani at Niels Bohr Inst,Dark Cosmology Center  <malesani@astro.ku.dk>

J.X. Prochaska (UCO/Lick), C.C. Thoene, D. Malesani, J.P.U. Fynbo, P.M. 
Vreeswijk (DARK), report:

We observed the candidate afterglow of GRB 070802 (Barthelmy et al., GCN 
6692; Berger et al., GCN 6695) with the ESO VLT + FORS2. A 30-min 
spectrum was acquired starting on Aug 2.378 UT. From the detection of 
several Fe lines, we measure z=2.45.

We acknoweldge excellent support from the VLT staff, in particular Alain 
Smette.