TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 162 SUBJECT: GRB 981220, optical observations DATE: 98/12/23 04:33:28 GMT FROM: Mark Wagner at Ohio State U. R. Mark Wagner and Sumner Starrfield report: We visually examined the region bounded by the ASM error box and IPN annulus for GRB 981220 on 1998 December 23.12 with the intensified acquisition camera (FOV: 2 arcmin) on the Boller and Chivens CCD spectrograph at the Steward Observatory 2.3-m telescope. Comparison with the Digitized Sky Survey does not reveal any new object brighter than about VR = 19.5 in the intersection of the error regions.