GCN Circular 282

A. O. Jaunsen (University of Oslo),
M. I. Andersen (Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma),
J. Hjorth, and H. Pedersen (University of Copenhagen) report:

We obtained R band images of the area around the possible LOTIS optical
counterpart to GRB 990316 (GCN #277) with the Nordic Optical Telescope 
on March 18.865 (1800 sec, FWHM = 1.40") and March 19.118 (1200 sec, 
FWHM = 1.45").  We find no evidence for variable objects in the 6' x 6' 
field centred on the LOTIS position.  A plot of the difference in inferred 
magnitude versus magnitude for objects detected in the field is posted on
the web page given below.  Comparison between a combined image of our NOT 
data and the KPNO R-band image (Bond et al., GCN #278) also give no 
significantly variable object.

All images obtained of the LOTIS position may be combined to reach fainter 
detection levels.  For this purpose we make our fully reduced and WCS (USNO 
A2.0) calibrated NOT images available at
http://www.astro.uio.no/~ajaunsen/grb990316/ .