TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 7101 SUBJECT: VLT FORS2 observations of short hard GRB071112B DATE: 07/11/17 18:36:03 GMT FROM: Rhaana Starling at U of Leicester K. Wiersema, N. Tanvir (Leicester), A. Levan (Warwick), D. Malesani (DARK, NBI), P. Jakobsson (Hertfordshire), E. Rol and R. Starling (Leicester) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the BAT position of the short GRB 071112B (GCN 7071) using FORS2 on the VLT. We acquired two epochs of data, the first in VRI, the second in R band only. The first R band epoch, consisting of 5 x 4 minutes exposures, started at 00:25:02 UT on 13 november. The second epoch, again 5 x 4 minutes exposures, started at 00:47:00 UT on 14 november. Both epochs were taken in good seeing conditions (0.7 and 0.9 arcsec respectively) but at high airmass. Limiting magnitudes (3 sigma) are estimated at R = 25.2 and R = 25.5 for the first and second epochs, respectively. Both visual inspection and PSF-matched image subtraction using the ISIS2 code (Alard 2000) did not reveal a significantly fading source in or near the BAT error circle. We note that the limiting magnitudes above may not be fully representative for the upper limit on the afterglow brightness, as the BAT error circle contains some nebulosity, and the dithering pattern employed to avoid the chip-gap between the two FORS2 chips means that a narrow strip through the error circle has received comparatively less illumination. We thank the Paranal staff for their excellent support, particularly Stephane Brillant and Linda Schmidtobreick.