TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12426 SUBJECT: GRB 111008A: Gemini optical counterpart DATE: 11/10/09 05:21:05 GMT FROM: Andrew Levan at U.of Leicester A.J. Levan (Warwick), K. Wiersema, N.R. Tanvir (Leicester) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We observed the field of GRB 111008A (Saxton et al. GCN 12423) with Gemini-South in the r-band. Observations began at 03:12 UT, 5 hours after the BAT trigger. Within the refined XRT error circle (Beardmore GCN 12425) we locate a single object at RA(J2000) 04:04:48.24 DEC(J2000) -32:42:33.4 with an error of 0.5" in each axis. Preliminary photometry against USNO-B1 suggests R~22.8. We suggest this may be the afterglow of GRB 111008A. Further spectroscopic observations are in progress. We thank the Gemini staff for the rapid and efficient execution of these observations."