TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12870 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: TNG NIR observations DATE: 12/01/19 11:53:27 GMT FROM: Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) and E. Palazzi (INAF/IASF Bo) report on behalf of the CIBO collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852) with the 3.6m TNG telescope located in the Canary Islands. We secured 40 min H-band and 40 min J-band imaging with the NICS instrument, carried out at a mean t-t0=9.9 hr and t-t0=10.9 hr, respectively. Within the UVOT-enhanced XRT error circle (Osborne et al., GCN 12857), we detect no source down to the limiting magnitudes H > 20.3 and J > 20.5 (Vega, calibrated against the 2MASS catalog). We note however, a hint for the presence of a faint, low-significance object in the H-band image, at the following position (J2000): RA: 08:19:29.02 Dec: -07:11:05.1 (+/- 0.3"), consistent with the UVOT-enhanced XRT position. At present we cannot asses if the source is real or due to a background fluctuation. We acknoledge the TNG staff for their support, in particular Avet Harutyunyan and Gianni Mainella. [GCN OPS NOTE(19jan12): Per author's request, "Gianni Tessicini" was changed to "Gianni Mainella".]