TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16294 SUBJECT: GRB 140516A: Gemini-North limit on an optical afterglow DATE: 14/05/17 16:56:25 GMT FROM: Wen-fai Fong at CFA W. Fong and E. Berger (Harvard) report: "We observed the location of the short-duration GRB 140516A (Bernardini et al., GCN 16285) with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) mounted on the Gemini-North 8-meter telescope at a mid-time of 2014 May 17.373 UT (12.38 hr post-burst). We obtained i-band observations for a total of 1800-sec in 0.5" seeing. We do not detect any optical source within the XRT position (Osborne et al., GCN 16289). Calibrated to SDSS, we therefore place a 3-sigma limit of i>26.1 AB mag on the optical afterglow of GRB 140516A at 12.38 hr after the burst. We thank Gemini observer Lucas Fuhrman for assistance with these observations."