TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  7738
SUBJECT: GRB 080516, SMARTS optical/IR observations
DATE:    08/05/16 17:00:13 GMT
FROM:    Bethany Cobb at Yale U  <cobb@astro.yale.edu>

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 080516
(GCN 7733, Holland et al.) with a mid-exposure time of
2008-05-16 01:27 UT (~1.2 hrs post-burst). Total summed
exposure times amounted to 36 minutes in I and 30 minutes in J.

No afterglow is detected at the enhanced Swift-XRT position
(GCN 7735, Beardmore et al.).  The 3-sigma limiting magnitudes
of our images are I>21.6 and J>19.5.  We caution, however,
that the afterglow position falls very near a I~10 mag star.
Optical photometry is calibrated against Landolt standard stars
and IR photometry is calibrated against 2MASS stars in the field.