TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  12531
SUBJECT: GRB 111103B : WIYN 3.5m NIR observations
DATE:    11/11/05 00:57:24 GMT
FROM:    Atish Kamble at U. of Wisconsin  <atish@gravity.phys.uwm.edu>

Ralf Kotulla, Atish Kamble, David Kaplan (UW-Milwaukee) and Nial Tanvir (U.
Leicester) report :

We observed the field of strong GRB 111103B (Palmer et al., GCN 12519)
using the WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) on the WIYN 3.5m
telescope,  beginning at November 4.08 (UT), approximately 15 hours after
the burst.  Observations were carried out using the Ks filter, and the seeing
was about 1 arcsec.

We detect a faint object within the improved XRT error circle (Goad et al.,
GCN 12525).  The preliminary magnitude of this source is K = 18.6 +/- 0.4,
but our observations do not allow us to make any statement about variability.
The source appears point-like, but the poor signal-to-noise means we could
not rule out it being slightly extended.

Further deep observations are encouraged for variability check and possible
association with the GRB.

The combined WIYN image of the field is available at :
http://members.galev.org/shared/GRB_111103B/whirc_zoom.jpg

We acknowledge the support from the staff of WIYN-3.5m telescope, and
especially from Greg Mosby in carrying out these observations.