TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19485 SUBJECT: GRB160601A: NOT detection of an afterglow candidate DATE: 16/06/01 22:49:29 GMT FROM: Steve Schulze at U of Iceland D. Malesani (DARK/NBI), S. Schulze (PUC, MAS), N. R. Tanvir (U Leicester), D. Xu (NAOC/CAS), A. A. Djupvik (NOT) and P. Jakobsson (U Iceland) report on behalf a larger collaboration: We observed the field of the short GRB 160601A (Kocevski et al., GCN 19478) with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with the AlFOSC imager. Our first 900-s exposure in the r band started on Jun 1.885 UT (6.5 hr after the GRB). Close to the UVOT-enhanced XRT position (Evans et al., GCN 19484), we detect two sources, at coordinates: (1) RA = 15:39:43.97 Dec = +64:32:30.5 r mag = 22.85 +/- 0.10 (AB) (2) RA = 15:39:44.91 Dec = +64:32:32.1 r mag = 23.04 +/- 0.09 (AB) Visual inspection of the SDSS at the above locations shows a faint, marginally detected object coincident with source (2), but no object at the position of source (1). We thus consider source (1) to be a potential afterglow candidate, though further observations are needed to test its variability.