C. C. Thoene (INAF/OAB), P. Jakobsson, A. De Cia (U. Iceland), A.J. Levan (Univ. Warwick), J.P.U. Fynbo, J. Hjorth, D. Malesani (DARK/NBI), N.R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), D. Fugazza (INAF/OAB), P. D'Avanzo (U. Bicocca & INAF/OAB) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:

Using FORS2 on the ESO Very Large Telescope, we have obtained low-resolution spectra (3 x 30 min) of the optical afterglow of GRB 090519 (Perri et al., GCN 9400; Thoene et al., GCN 9403) with the grism 300V, covering the wavelength range 3500-9200 AA. In the acquisition image the afterglow has a magnitude of R ~ 23.5. The first spectrum was taken approximately 4 hours after the burst. In a preliminary analysis we detect a break around 4400 AA and strong absorption features around 5000 AA and 5900 AA. We interpret these features as the Lyman limit, Lyman-beta and Lyman-alpha at a redshift of z = 3.85. This is in agreement with the photometric redshift reported by Rossi et al. (GCN 9408). We thank the Paranal staff for excellent support, in particular Gianni Marconi, Kieran O'Brien and Patricia Guajardo.

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