TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 7347 SUBJECT: GRB 080229: VLT NIR observations DATE: 08/03/01 18:28:34 GMT FROM: Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB P. D'Avanzo and G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) on behalf of the MISTICI collaboration report: We observed the field of the GRB 080229 (Cannizzo et al., GCN 7335) with the ESO-VLT on March 01.411 UT (about 16.8 hours after the burst). Observations have been carried out in J-band with the ISAAC NIR camera in imaging mode under very good (0.7") seeing conditions. We do not detect any afterglow candidate inside the enhanced XRT error box (Beardmore et al., GCN 7343) down to J > 21.6 (3sigma c.l., calibrated against the 2MASS catalog). We acknowledge support from the ESO staff, in particular Thomas Szeifert.