TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1427 SUBJECT: GRB020531: Detection of Candidate Host Galaxy DATE: 02/06/12 00:32:17 GMT FROM: Derek Fox at CIT D.W. Fox and S.R. Kulkarni (Caltech), with P. Weissman (JPL) report: "We have observed the error region of the short/hard gamma-ray burst GRB020531 (GCN 1407) with the Hale Telescope and Large Format Camera on Mt. Palomar on two occasions, June 1.3 and June 2.3 UT, for a total integration of 1200s at each epoch. Within less than 1" of the position of Chandra Source 48 of Butler et al. (GCN 1415, 1426), aka CXOU J151455.8-192454, we find an object with r'~22.4 mag that appears slightly extended in our (FWHM ~ 1.4") images, and varies less than 0.1 mag between our two epochs. We tentatively identify this object as the host galaxy of GRB020531. Images will be posted shortly at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~derekfox/grb020531/ "