TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 2188 SUBJECT: GRB 030501: TAROT possible candidate counterpart DATE: 03/05/01 19:55:10 GMT FROM: Michel Boer at CESR-CNRS Michel Boer and Alain Klotz (CESR/CNRS/UPS), on behalf of the TAROT team report: We observed the localisation of GRB 030501 given by INTEGRAL (GCN Circ. 2183). The observations started at 3h10m37.6s, less than 20 seconds after the burst trigger, while it was still active. We do detect an object in the INTEGRAL error box which is not present on the DSS. The position of the new source is RA = 19h05m37.9s DEC = +6d18'51" with a preliminary uncertainty of 3 arcsec. On our 14, 30s duration, images the flux seems constant in first approximation, at an R magnitude of 14.9 +- 0.2. Hence the new source may be a variable star, detected seremdipitously in high state. Work is still in progress on our images to investigate the nature of this object. A preliminary report and finding chart are available at the following URL: http://www.cesr.fr/~klotz/grb030501/ This message is quotable