TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  43867
SUBJECT: EP/WXT trigger 01709258681 (EP260227a?): LCO candidate afterglow
DATE:    26/02/27 23:33:12 GMT
FROM:    Daniele Bjørn Malesani at Cosmic Dawn Center, Niels Bohr Institute <daniele.malesani@nbi.ku.dk>

R. A. J. Eyles-Ferris (Leicester), D. B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and Radboud), A. Martin-Carrillo (UCD), J. N. D. van Dalen (Radboud), J. Chacón (PUC), report on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We observed the field of the EP/WXT trigger 01709258681 (likely EP260227a) using the Sinistro instrument on the 1-m telescope in Sutherland (South Africa), part of the LCO network. Six 300 s observations were secured in the SDSS r band, with mean time 2026 Feb 27.945 UT (2.47 hr after the WXT trigger).

Comparison of our images with archival templates from the Legacy Survey reveals a new object at coordinates (J2000):

RA = 14:52:19.94
Dec = -11:24:23.9

Photometry yields r = 20.18 +/- 0.04 (AB) calibrated against nearby stars from the Pan-STARRS catalog, and not corrected for Galactic extinction.

We suggest this is the optical counterpart of the EP/WXT trigger 01709258681.