Robotic Astronomy and the BOOTES Network of Robotic Telescopes

The Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System (BOOTES), started in 1998 as a Spanish-Czech collaboration project, devoted to a study of optical emissions from gamma ray bursts (GRBs) that occur in the Universe. The first two BOOTES stations were located in Spain, and included medium size robotic telescopes with CCD cameras at the Cassegrain focus as well as all-sky cameras, with the two stations located 240 km apart. The first observing station (BOOTES-1) is located at ESAt (INTA-CEDEA) in Mazag´on (Huelva) and the first light was obtained in July 1998. The second observing station (BOOTES-2) is located at La Mayora (CSIC) in M´alaga and has been operating fully since July 2001. In 2009 BOOTES expanded abroad, with the third station (BOOTES-3) being installed in Blenheim (South Island, New Zealand) as result of a collaboration project with several institutions from the southern hemisphere. The fourth station (BOOTES-4) is on its way, to be deployed in 2011

Identification of the donor in GRS 1915+105

We report on the results of medium-resolution spectroscopy of GRS 1915+105 in the H and K band using the 8m VLT at ESO. We clearly identify absorption bandheads from CO12 and CO13. Together with other features this results in a classification of the donor as a K-M III star.Comment: 4 pages, Kluwer style, to appear in Astrophys. Space Sci. Rev, Proc. of 3rd Microquasar workshop, Granada, Sep. 2000, Eds. A.J. Castro-Tirado, J. Greiner, J.M. Paredes; all proceedings contr. available at http://www.aip.de/~jcg/granada.htm

The GRB 030328 host: another case of a blue starburst galaxy

We present for the first time the detection of the GRB 030328 host galaxy in four optical bands equivalent to UBRI. The host galaxy spectral energy distribution is consistent with a low extinction (E(B-V) < 0.21) starburst galaxy. The restframe B-band magnitude of the host is M_B ~ -20.4Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Il nuovo cimento (4th Workshop Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era, Rome, 18-22 October 2004