TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 349 SUBJECT: GRB990527 Optical Observations DATE: 99/05/31 16:21:11 GMT FROM: Holger Pedersen at Copenhagen U Obs H. Pedersen, J. Hjorth, B. L. Jensen (Copenhagen), M. B. Rasmussen (Aarhus), A. O. Jaunsen (Oslo), and K. Hurley (UCBerkeley/SSL) report: "We have observed the field toward the Ulysses + KONUS-WIND + NEAR IPN localization of GRB 990527 (GCN #347) with the DFOSC at the Danish 1.54-m telescope on La Silla. The FOV was 13.4' x 13.4' and thus covers most of the IPN diamond. Five 8 min exposures and one 10 min exposure were obtained in the R band between 29.33 May and 29.44 May 1999 UT. The seeing FWHM was 2.0". Seven additional 10 min R band exposures were obtained between 30.33 May and 30.45 May 1999 UT, in 1.1" seeing. All images were taken in strong moon-light. The combined exposure covers 12.5' x 12.5'. Visual inspection of the images revealed no object inside the IPN diamond that was not present on the DSS-2 ('Second Epoch Southern' survey, UK Schmidt, IIIaF + RG610 red plate) and brighter than the DSS-2 magnitude limit. Comparison between the images obtained on 29.4 May and 30.4 May revealed no significantly variable object above a magnitude limit of R = 22.0. For finding charts, see http://www.astro.ku.dk/~holger/g/GRB990527/news.html . This page also gives details on two stars, which stand out in comparison to the DSS; both are off the error box, and non-variable during the CCD observations."