TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 44145 SUBJECT: EP260329a: Optical upper limit with Kinder observations DATE: 26/03/29 14:40:17 GMT FROM: Janet Chen at National Central University <janetstars@gmail.com> A. Sankar.K, A. Aryan, T.-W. Chen, C.-S. Lin (all NCU), S. Yang (HNAS), A. K. H. Kong (NTHU), S. J. Smartt, J. Gillanders (both Oxford), M. Nicholl (QUB), M.-H. Lee, A. Dutta, Y.-H. Lee, Y.-C. Pan, C.-C. Ngeow, C.-H. Lai, H.-C. Lin, W.-J. Hou, H.-Y. Hsiao, J.-K. Guo (all NCU), Y. J. Yang (NYUAD), Z. N. Wang, D. C. Qiang, L. L. Fan (all HNAS), H.-W. Lin (UMich), H. F. Stevance, S. Srivastav, L. Rhodes (all Oxford), M. Fulton, T. Moore, K. W. Smith, C. Angus, A. Aamer (all QUB), A. Schultz M. Huber, K. Chambers (all IfA, Hawaii) report: We observed the field of the EP260329a (Yang et al., GCN 44141) using the 40cm SLT at the Lulin observatory, as part of the Kinder collaboration (Chen et al. 2025, ApJ, 983, 86, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adb428). The first SLT epoch of observations in g-band started at 11:03 UTC on 29th of March 2026 (MJD 61128.460), 7.54 hr after the EP-WXT detection. We utilized the astroalign (Beroiz et al. 2020, A&C, 32, 100384) and astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2022, ApJ, 935, 167) packages to align and stack the individual frames. We used the Python-based AutoPhOT package (Brennan & Fraser, 2022, A&A, 667, A62) to perform template subtraction of the Pan-STARRS1 3Pi archive image (Chambers et al., 2016, arXiv:1612.05560) using the 'SFFT' (Hu et al., 2022, ApJ, 936, 157) algorithm. Neither in the stacked nor in the difference image did we detect any signature of a new or uncatalogued source within the EP-WXT localization circle (3.2'). Moreover, we further used AutoPhOT to perform PSF photometry. The details of the observations and the 3-sigma upper limit (in the AB system) are as follows: Telescope | Filter | MJD (start) | t-t0 (hr) | Exposure (s) | Magnitude| avg. Seeing | Med. Airmass SLT | r | 61128.460 | 7.54 | 300 * 9 | >21.1 | 2".36 | 3.02 The presented magnitudes are calibrated using the field stars from the PanSTARRS catalog. The reported upper limit is not corrected for an expected galactic extinction of A_r = 0.44 mag in the direction of the transient (Schlafly & Finkbeiner 2011). The methodology, details on the Lulin observatory telescopes, and a compilation of our optical follow-up campaign for FXTs discovered within the first year of operation of the Einstein-Probe mission are presented in Aryan et al. 2025, ApJS, 281, 20, doi:10.3847/1538-4365/adfc69. View this GCN Circular online at https://gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/44145. --- To unsubscribe, open this link in a web browser: https://gcn.nasa.gov/unsubscribe/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJlbWFpbCI6InZzbmV0LW...