TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 9526 SUBJECT: GRB 090618: SDSS host detection DATE: 09/06/18 16:52:52 GMT FROM: Daniele Malesani at Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Inst Daniele Malesani (DARK/NBI) reports: I inspected the SDSS images of the field of GRB 090618 (Schady et al., GCN 9512). A faint object is visible in the r and i frames at the position of the optical afterglow (e.g. Schady et al., GCN 9512; Cenko, GCN 9513), likely the host galaxy of the GRB. Nothing convincing is visible in the u, g, and z images. Compared to nearby SDSS stars, the magnitudes are r = 22.7 +- 0.3 and i = 22.2 +- 0.4. The bright host magnitude is consistent with the low redshift reported by Cenko et al. (GCN 9518) A supernova as bright as SN 1998bw (Galama et al. 1998, Nature, 395, 670) would peak at r(AB) ~ 23.6 at z=0.54.