  The detection of increased sodium absorption during primary transit implies
the presence of an atmosphere around an extrasolar planet, and enables us to
infer the structure of this atmosphere. Sodium has only been detected in the
atmospheres of two planets to date - HD189733b and HD209458b. WASP-17b is the
least dense planet currently known. It has a radius approximately twice that of
Jupiter and orbits an F6-type star. The transit signal is expected to be about
five times larger than that observed in HD209458b. We obtained 24 spectra with
the GIRAFFE spectrograph on the VLT, eight during transit. The integrated flux
in the sodium doublet at wavelengths 5889.95 and 5895.92 {\AA} was measured at
bandwidths 0.75, 1.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 {\AA}. We find a transit depth of
0.55 \pm 0.13 per cent at 1.5 {\AA}. This suggests that, like HD209458b,
WASP-17b has an atmosphere depleted in sodium compared to models for a
cloud-free atmosphere with solar sodium abundance. We observe a sharp cut-off
in sodium absorption between 3.0 and 4.0 {\AA} which may indicate a layer of
clouds high in the atmosphere.
