TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20146 SUBJECT: GRB 161108A: NOT candidate afterglow DATE: 16/11/08 06:08:47 GMT FROM: Daniele Malesani at Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Inst D. Malesani (DARK/NBI and DTU Space), A. de Ugarte Postigo (IAA-CSIC and DARK/NBI), A. Somero (UTU), E. Gafton (NOT, SU, OKC), S. Damsted (Univ. Helsinki), G. Erfanianfar (MPE), A. Finoguenov (Univ. Helsinki), C. Gibson (Univ. Helsinki), F. Kiefer (MPE), C. Kirkpatrick (Univ. Helsinki), M. Lumme (Univ. Helsinki), V. Oja (Univ. Helsinki), J. Rantakyla (Univ. Helsinki), I. Salmenpera (Univ. Helsinki), and M. Seppala (Univ. Helsinki), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 161108A (Beardmore et al., GCN 20145) with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with the AlFOSC imager and spectrograph. Observations started on Nov 8.2132 UT (94.4 min after the GRB trigger) and were carried out in the r and z filters. Within the currently available XRT position (Beardmore et al., GCN 20145), we detect a single object, at coordinates (J2000): RA = 12:03:09.11 Dec = +24:52:04.9 This source has a magnitude r = 20.82 +- 0.05 AB, calibrated against nearby SDSS stars. The same object is visible in the SDSS archival images, at a significantly fainter magnitude r = 22.69 +- 0.20. It is classified as a galaxy with a photometric redshift of 0.50 +- 0.12. The most likely interpretation is that the object seen in the NOT images is the superposition of afterglow and host galaxy, so we consider the association with GRB 161108A secure.