{
  "submittedHow": "web",
  "bibcode": "2026GCN.44730....1E",
  "createdOn": 1780020596689,
  "eventId": "EP260527a",
  "format": "text/plain",
  "circularId": 44730,
  "body": "\nM. El Kabir, Y. Yang  and E. Troja (U Rome) report on behalf of the ERC BHianca team:\n\nWe observed the field of EP260527a (Yang et al., GCN 44718), likely associated with the short GRB 260527A (Svinkin et al., GCN 44722, Yu et al., GCN 44724; Kawakubo et al., GCN 44726), with the FORS2 and HAWK-I on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). Observations started about 41.4 hrs after the GRB trigger and were performed at an airmass of ~1.2 in excellent conditions. The field was imaged using the r, z, J and K filters. \n\nPhotometric calibration was performed using nearby stars from the Pan-STARRS and 2MASS catalogues. Magnitudes are reported in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic extinction.  At the position of the optical counterpart (Aguilar-Ruiz et al., GCN 44719; Li et al., GCN 44720; Busmann et al.44728; Corcoran et al. GCN 44729 ), we detect a source with the following preliminary magnitude: \n\nz = 23.1 +/- 0.1\nJ = 23.0 +/- 0.1\n\nCompared to earlier observations  (Aguilar-Ruiz et al., GCN 44719), our measurements suggest a rapid fading of the afterglow, consistent with the observed X-ray behavior (Yang et al. GCN, 44725). \n\nWe thank the staff at the VLT for the rapid execution of these observations.\n",
  "submitter": "Massine El Kabir <m.elkabir@campus.unimib.it>",
  "subject": "EP260527a / GRB 260527A: VLT detection of the optical and nIR counterpart"
}