Circular No. 7110 Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions) BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science) URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html ISSN 0081-0304 Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only) GRB 990217 G. Tarei and G. Celidonio, BeppoSAX Science Operation Center, Telespazio, Rome; J. in 't Zand and H. Muller, Space Research Organization of the Netherlands, Utrecht; L. Piro and P. Soffitta, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale, CNR, Rome; and M. Orlandini, Istituto Tecnologie e Studio Radiazioni Extraterrestri, CNR, Bologna, report: "A gamma-ray burst has been detected simultaneously by the BeppoSAX Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GRBM) and the Wide Field Camera (WFC) no. 2 on Feb. 17.224618 UT. The GRBM lightcurve is single-peaked with a duration of about 15 s and with a peak intensity of about 150 counts/s in the energy band 40-700 keV. The WFC lightcurve is also single-peaked, with a peak intensity of about 0.5 Crab (2-26 keV). The position derived by the WFC image is R.A. = 3h02m52s, Decl. = -53o05'.6 (equinox 2000.0), with an error radius of 3'. A follow-up observation with BeppoSAX narrow-field instruments is in progress." SGR 1900+14 = PSR J1907+0919 Yu. P. Shitov, Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory, Astro Space Center, Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, writes: "The soft-gamma-ray repeater SGR 1900+14 was observed during 1998 Dec.- 1999 Jan. using the Pushchino Bol'shaya Steerable Array (BSA) radiotelescope (area about 80 000 m^2) and 64x20-kHz filterbank receiver at 111 MHz. In 14 observation days (BSA transit time is 200 s), we have detected the pulsed radio emission with the same period (5.161 +/- 0.001 s) that was reported on IAUC 7001. The width of the integrated pulse profile at half maximum intensity is about 100 ms. The estimated mean flux density at 111 MHz is about 50 mJy from the best records. The dispersion-measure value was determined as 281.4 +/- 0.9, which gives an estimate of the object's distance as about 6 kpc. From our timing analysis of observations made at the assumed position R.A. = 19h07m14s.2, Decl. = +9o19'20" (equinox 2000.0; Murakami et al. 1999, Ap.J. 510, L119), we find the following best-fit parameters: barycentric period 5.161297854(83) s, period derivative dP/dt = 1.23228(34) x 10E-10 s/s, epoch 1998 Dec. 12.460500 UT (rms timing residuals about 21 ms). Thus our results show that SGR 1900+14 is identical with the radio pulsar PSR J1907+0919, representative of a new class of pulsars with a superstrong magnetic field on the order order of 8 x 10E14 gauss, thereby confirming that this object is a 'magnetar' (Kouveliotou et al. 1999, Ap.J. 510, L115)." (C) Copyright 1999 CBAT 1999 February 17 (7110) Daniel W. E. Green