TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 5961 SUBJECT: GRB 061222b, SMARTS optical/IR afterglow observations DATE: 06/12/22 05:31:57 GMT FROM: Bethany Cobb at Yale U B. E. Cobb (Yale), part of the larger SMARTS consortium, reports: Using the ANDICAM instrument on the 1.3m telescope at CTIO, we obtained optical/IR imaging of the error region of GRB 061222b (GCN 5957, Racusin et al.), with a mid-exposure time of 2006-12-22 04:42:11 UT, which is ~0.5 hours post-burst. Several dithered images were obtained in each filter, with total summed exposure times of 180s in each of BRIYJK and 120s in each of H and V. In the I-band a dim object is detected with a preliminary magnitude of I=20.7+/-0.4 at the position of the afterglow reported by Berger (GCN 5956). This source is not significantly detected in the J-band to a limiting magnitude of J<18. Photometry is calibrated with USNO-B1.0 stars in the optical and 2MASS stars in the IR. Photometry is effect by high background due to the nearby bright star.