When a GRB occurs within 45 degrees from the Sun or within 30 degrees from the Earth or the Moon (from the satellite's point of view), Swift cannot slew its delicate instruments to observe those events until the blindingly bright object moves far enough away from the burst source.

Because of these constraints, I have not been able to look at good early XRT data lately, until today.

A very long GRB was detected on Saturday, GRB 070616. XRT slewed so quickly that it was able to catch a good bit of the prompt emission before it faded into the afterglow. It was fairly bright source, as well. The XRT WT light curve reminded me of a decorative Chinese dragon, starting off at between 100 to 150 count/s and oscillating until it fell into a steep decay.

I think I'm leaning towards studying XRT WT light curves as a dissertation project just because they're fascinatingly beautiful!