TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 78 SUBJECT: GRB980519 optical observations DATE: 98/05/20 02:46:49 GMT FROM: Jens Hjorth at NORDITA The Nordic Optical Telescope GRB team (A. O. Jaunsen, J. Hjorth, M. I. Andersen, K. Kjernsmo, H. Pedersen, E. Palazzi) reports the detection at the 2.5-m NOT of an unresolved (in seeing of 1.5"-2"), variable object located within the BeppoSAX error box of GRB 980519 (GCN #75). The coordinates (+- 0.5") are RA(2000) = 23 22 21.46 Dec(2000) = +77 15 43.0 The object had an I magnitude of about 19.5 on May 19.87 UTC but is not detected in the DSS while objects of similar magnitude are. The OT had faded by about 0.6 mag in V and I on May 20.0 UTC. These observations suggest that the OT is the optical counterpart of GRB 980519. Preliminary Cousins I photometry (+-0.1 mag, not corrected for extinction) of 4 nearby reference stars yields RA(2000) Dec(2000) I A 23 22 17.74 +77 15 51.2 19.04 B 23 22 27.29 +77 15 43.5 19.49 C 23 22 28.50 +77 15 25.4 18.52 D 23 22 47.14 +77 16 23.5 15.69 On this system the OT had I=20.08 on May 20.00 UTC Finding charts, images and updates will be posted at http://www.uio.no/~ajaunsen/grb980519 This note can be cited.