4 Current status

The BOOTES-1 first light took place on 1 July 1998, and the quick follow-up GRB observations performed so far are summarized in Table 3. The two stations (BOOTES-1 and -2) will fully operate in Dec. 1999. Additional information can be seen at http://www.laeff.esa.es/$\sim$ajct/BOOTES/bootes98.html

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for the support given by the Space Sciences Division (DCE) at INTA, through the project IGE 4900506. We thank J. Maíz, R. Morales, M. Santos-Lleó and J. Torres for very fruitful conversations, M. Iríbar, J. Martín-Francía, F. Souvrier and J.M. Vilaplana for their hospitality and help at El Arenosillo, and the anonymous referee for useful suggestions. We are also indebted to the GCN team (in particular to S. Barthelmy) for rapidly distributing the GRB positions obtained by BATSE. The Czech contribution is supported by the Ministry of Education and Youth of the Czech Republic, projects ES02 and ES36.