Gamma-ray bursts posses a number of properties that make them very good candidates for synchronizers that could aid in the search for brief beamed extraterrestrial signals. GRB positions are now starting to be obtained with sufficient precision to make them useful for targeted searches. This is augmented by precise measurements of stellar parallaxes from satellite borne instruments, and it is anticipated that even better parallax measurements will be obtained in the relatively near future. GRB locations and times are rapidly available from the GCN (GRB Coordinates Network, Barthelmy et al. 1998) and this is likely to continue with future missions which also aids in their use.
For all sky surveys, the case for using GRBs as target positions to observe may be a lot weaker. However, there appears to be little to lose by pointing a detector as soon as possible at GRB locations and monitoring that location for some time. Additionally, even the positions currently provided by BATSE may be used for this purpose by a detector that has a field of view of a few degrees.
| Distance (pc) | Angle( ) |
Delay (d) | 1 | 10 | Hipparcos | GAIA/SIM |
| 7.2 | 1 | 1.30631 | 7.25609E-04 | 7.26718E-03 | 9.47365E-03 | 9.40612E-05 |
| 7.2 | 2 | 5.22485 | 1.45110E-03 | 1.45221E-02 | 3.78917E-02 | 3.76216E-04 |
| 7.2 | 3 | 11.7544 | 2.17615E-03 | 2.17725E-02 | 8.52456E-02 | 8.46379E-04 |
| 7.2 | 5 | 32.6379 | 3.62403E-03 | 3.62514E-02 | 0.236697 | 2.35010E-03 |
| 20 | 1 | 3.62864 | 2.01558E-03 | 2.01866E-02 | 7.40539E-02 | 7.25874E-04 |
| 20 | 2 | 14.5135 | 4.03083E-03 | 4.03391E-02 | 0.296193 | 2.90327E-03 |
| 20 | 3 | 32.6512 | 6.04485E-03 | 6.04793E-02 | 0.666350 | 6.53154E-03 |
| 20 | 5 | 90.6608 | 1.00668E-02 | 1.00698E-01 | 1.85022 | 1.81358E-02 |
| 50 | 1 | 9.07161 | 5.03895E-03 | 5.04665E-02 | 0.477453 | 4.53807E-03 |
| 50 | 2 | 36.2837 | 1.00771E-02 | 1.00848E-01 | 1.90967 | 1.81509E-02 |
| 50 | 3 | 81.6279 | 1.51121E-02 | 0.151198 | 4.29621 | 4.08344E-02 |
| 50 | 5 | 226.652 | 2.51669E-02 | 0.251746 | 11.9291 | 0.113383 |
| 100 | 1 | 18.1432 | 1.00779E-02 | 1.00933E-01 | 2.01591 | 1.81614E-02 |
| 100 | 2 | 72.5673 | 2.01541E-02 | 0.201695 | 8.06304 | 7.26400E-02 |
| 100 | 3 | 163.256 | 3.02242E-02 | 0.302396 | 18.1395 | 0.163419 |
| 100 | 5 | 453.304 | 5.03338E-02 | 0.503491 | 50.3671 | 0.453758 |
| 1000 | 1 | 181.432 | 1.00779E-01 | 1.00933 | -- | 1.83265 |
| 1000 | 2 | 725.673 | 0.201541 | 2.01695 | -- | 7.33003 |
| 1000 | 3 | 1632.56 | 0.302242 | 3.02396 | -- | 16.4905 |
| 1000 | 5 | 4533.04 | 0.503338 | 5.03491 | -- | 45.7883 |