TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 44730 SUBJECT: EP260527a / GRB 260527A: VLT detection of the optical and nIR counterpart DATE: 26/05/29 02:09:56 GMT FROM: Massine El Kabir <m.elkabir@campus.unimib.it> M. El Kabir, Y. Yang and E. Troja (U Rome) report on behalf of the ERC BHianca team: We observed the field of EP260527a (Yang et al., GCN 44718), likely associated with the short GRB 260527A (Svinkin et al., GCN 44722, Yu et al., GCN 44724; Kawakubo et al., GCN 44726), with the FORS2 and HAWK-I on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). Observations started about 41.4 hrs after the GRB trigger and were performed at an airmass of ~1.2 in excellent conditions. The field was imaged using the r, z, J and K filters. Photometric calibration was performed using nearby stars from the Pan-STARRS and 2MASS catalogues. Magnitudes are reported in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic extinction. At the position of the optical counterpart (Aguilar-Ruiz et al., GCN 44719; Li et al., GCN 44720; Busmann et al.44728; Corcoran et al. GCN 44729 ), we detect a source with the following preliminary magnitude: z = 23.1 +/- 0.1 J = 23.0 +/- 0.1 Compared to earlier observations (Aguilar-Ruiz et al., GCN 44719), our measurements suggest a rapid fading of the afterglow, consistent with the observed X-ray behavior (Yang et al. GCN, 44725). We thank the staff at the VLT for the rapid execution of these observations. View this GCN Circular online at https://gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/44730. --- To unsubscribe, open this link in a web browser: https://gcn.nasa.gov/unsubscribe/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJlbWFpbCI6InZzbmV0LW...