{
  "bibcode": "1999GCN...345....1M",
  "body": "N. Masetti, E. Palazzi, E. Pian, F. Frontera (ITESRE, CNR, Bologna),\nD. Gardiol, S. Benetti, A. Zacchei, A. Magazzu' (TNG), M. Della Valle\n(Univ. of Padua), E. Costa, M. Feroci and L. Piro (IAS, CNR, Rome) report:\n\n\"We imaged the error box of the X-ray transient source SAX J0835.9+5118\n(Piro, GCN #333) with TNG plus OIG CCD camera on 1999 May 20.890 - 20.920 \nUT (five V frames; seeing 1.\"2 - 1\".5) and on 1999 May 21.934 - 21.955 UT\n(one R and two V frames; seeing 0\".9). The exposure time was 300s for all\nimages.\n\nCalibration of V and R frames was performed using the photometry by\nHenden et al. (GCN #339).\nA limiting magnitude of V ~ 22.5 was obtained in each frame of the first\nnight, while the limits V ~ 23 and R ~ 23 were reached in the images\nacquired on the second night (3-sigma limits).\n\nComparison among the V frames of May 20 and 21 shows no object which\nvaried by more than 0.3 magnitudes (at a 3-sigma level) down to V ~ 22.\n\nThe optical counterpart (Bloom et al., GCN #335) of the radio source\ndetected by Frail et al. (GCN #334) appears star-like as earlier noted by\nother authors (GCN #336, #338, #341) with magnitudes V = 21.08 +- 0.05 and\nR = 20.68 +- 0.05. Some scatter of 0.1 mag around the mean V magnitude of\nthe object is seen, thus probably indicating the presence of flickering\nor of some other optical variability.\n\nThe irregular galaxy reported by Pedersen et al. (GCN #340) has \nV = 20.20 +- 0.05 and R = 19.60 +- 0.05 in our frames and does not show\nany variability in the V band between the two nights. We see in our images\nthat the faint knot noted by Pedersen et al. southeast of the galaxy\nappears brighter in the R band than in V.\n\nThe R magnitudes of both objects are in agreement with the values reported \nby Halpern et al. (GCN #343).\n\n\nThis message can be cited.\"",
  "circularId": 345,
  "createdOn": 927798831000,
  "email": "masetti@tesre.bo.cnr.it",
  "subject": "X-ray/GRB 1SAX J0835.9+5118, TNG V and R observations",
  "submitter": "Nicola Masetti at ITeSRE,CNR,Bologna  <masetti@tesre.bo.cnr.it>"
}