Hi all, For whatever it is worth, I think most of Brad's technical statements (GCNC-241) where correct, but I did not find the conclusion (no lensing) very compelling. The only serious indication of lensing, in my opinion, is/was the alignment of a foreground galaxy at z=0.28 (a good redshift for lens cross section) with a z>1.61 source to within 1.8 +/- 0.4 arc sec. If those numbers are correct, we either have significant lensing or only missed it by a narrow margin...completely independent of energetics worries, a posteriori statistics, Kulkarni's motivations, etc. On that basis alone, I would consider a bit of continued monitoring worthwhile...far from a sure bet, but worth trying (given the rather minimal observing time cost). However, 1) there seems to be some confusion about these redshift and alignment "facts" based on second hand reports from Keck, etc. and 2) I have heard support for APO monitoring from only a couple of people (Alan and Karen) and silence from all orhters on the grb distribution list. So, I am confused about the alignment situation and am inclined to view the silence as absence of enthusiasm for an APO monitoring program. Thus, I have not scheduled any DD02 program so far. If you have some view about whether we should or should not give it a try, please let me know. Finally, I can report one fact: HST has scheduled a 3 orbit unfiltered STIS CCD image of the system for 8-9 Feb UT. It will be made with STScI DDT and released to the public immediately, following the day or two it takes it to filter back to the Institute via TDRS, GSFC etc. These images should be plenty deep enough to show distorted and perhaps multiple images of the host galaxy if there is strong (macro) lensing, and thus pretty well settle the issue. Between now and then, there is relatively little opportunity for APO monitoring. Tonight is full moon (but feel free to give it a try with UW08, if you are so inclined, Alan...either using GRIM2 or DIS before the swap following Paula's program), and then we have a long Echelle commissioning run. We should decide what we want to do by its end, I guess. Cheers, Ed APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 32 in the apo35-grb archive. You can find APO the archive on http://www.astro.princeton.edu/APO/apo35-grb/INDEX.html APO To join/leave the list, send mail to apo35-request@astro.princeton.edu APO To post a message, mail it to apo35-grb@astro.princeton.edu APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO