TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  280
SUBJECT: GRB 990316, Optical observations
DATE:    99/03/19 18:01:47 GMT
FROM:    Titus Galama at U.Amsterdam  <titus@astro.uva.nl>

T.J. Galama (U. of Amsterdam), E. Pian, E. Palazzi, F. Frontera,
N. Masetti (ITESRE, CNR, Bologna), K.C. Sahu (STScI), P.M. Vreeswijk,
E. Rol (U. of Amsterdam), J. van Paradijs (U. of Amsterdam and U. of
Alabama in Huntsville), C. Kouveliotou (USRA/MSFC), O. Hainaut, and
V. Doublier (ESO/Chile) report:

"We have observed the location of the LOTIS candidate optical
transient reported by Park et al (GCN 277) with the European Southern
Observatory (ESO) New Technology Telescope (NTT) on March 18.18 and
March 19.17 in V and R for 900 sec each. We do not find objects
variable by more than 0.25 magnitudes down to V = 24.1, R = 24.3 in a
2 x 2 arcmin region around the LOTIS position. The magnitudes are
measured relative to a star at RA 09:50:13.26, DEC -04:57:45.6 (V =
19.25; R = 19.03; we estimate an absolute calibration uncertainty of
0.15 magnitude). "

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