TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 29281 SUBJECT: GRB 201227A: continued Chilescope confirmation of variability of possible optical counterpart, redshift estimating DATE: 21/01/08 16:20:33 GMT FROM: Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow S. Belkin (IKI), A. Pozanenko (IKI), P. Minaev (IKI), M. Krugov (FAI) report on behalf of GRB IKI FuN collaboration: We continued observations of the field of XRT #2 sources (D'Elia et al., GCN 29202) (hereafter X2) found in IPN localization area (Svinkin et al., GCN 29182) of GRB 201227A (Ursi et al., GCN 29179; Xiao et al., GCN 29187; Svinkin et al., GCN 29196; Lesage et al., GCN 29206; Marisaldi et al., GCN 29276) with Chilescope RC-1000 on 2021-01-01 and 2021-01-08 in r'-filter. The X2_O2 object found in previous observation on 2020-12-29 at r'(AB)= 20.5 (Belkin et al., GCN 29208; see also Izzo et al., GCN 29207) is not detected on 2021-01-01 with an upper limit of r'(AB) > 20.6 and barely detected on 2021-01-08 at r'(AB)=22.6. Now we confirm the variability of the object of X2_O2 and suggest the optical object X2_02 could be a counterpart of GRB 201227A. In the last image on 2021-01-08, the object X2_O2 could be the host galaxy. A finding chart of the X2_O2 can be found in http://grb.rssi.ru/GRB201227A/GRB201227A_r_FC_201229_2100108.png Preliminary photometry of the X2_O2 is following Date UT start t-T0 Filter Exp. OT(AB) Err. UL(AB) FWHM (mid, days) (s) 2021-01-01 05:57:21 4.63072 r' 5*600 n/d n/d 20.6 1.5" 2021-01-08 04:15:45 11.5636 r' 3*1200 22.6 0.4 22.5 1.4" The photometry is based on nearby stars from the APASS_DR8 RA DEC r 11:19:31.40904 -73:35:47.6880 14.090 11:19:44.89128 -73:34:49.6092 15.180 11:19:36.65304 -73:36:30.2112 15.307 In addition we investigated a position of the GRB 201227A on the EHD diagram (see Minaev et al., MNRAS, 492, 1919, 2020). The position of GRB 201227A based on Konus-Wind data (Svinkin et al., GCN Circ. 29196) can be found in http://grb.rssi.ru/GRB201227A/GRB201227A_EH_T90i.png We can exclude the GRB 201227A as a giant flare event of SGR since there is no nearby galaxies in the IPN error box. We can identify the GRB 201227A as short GRB at a redshift of z > 0.05.