TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23086 SUBJECT: GRB 180805B: VLT optical and near-infrared observations DATE: 18/08/06 13:01:16 GMT FROM: Daniele Malesani at Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Inst D. B. Malesani (DAWN/NBI and DARK/NBI), G. Pugliese (API/Univ. Amsterdam), P. D'Avanzo (INAF/Brera), N. R. Tanvir (Univ. Leicester), K. Wiersema (Univ. Warwick), report on behalf of the Stargate consortium: We observed the field of GRB 180805B, classified as short with extended emission (D'Avanzo et al., GCN 23076; Sakamoto et al., GCN 23082), using the ESO Telescopes located in Cerro Paranal. Optical and near-infrared observations were obtained using the FORS2 and HAWK-I instruments, respectively. No counterpart is detected inside the UVOT-enhanced XRT error circle (Evans et al., GCN 23077) in either images, with the 3-sigma upper limits summarized in the table below. Filter Mid time (UT) Time since GRB (hr) Limiting mag (Vega) --------------------------------------------------------------- J Aug 6.245 16.84 23.5 R Aug 6.363 19.67 25.5 Calibration was carried out against a single 2MASS star for the J band, and using archival FORS2 zeropoints for the R band. We note the presence of four extended objects within a few arcsec of the center of the XRT error circle, including a source 3.5" North of the GRB (R ~ 22.5) also visible in the Pan-STARRS r and i images. Their association with the GRB cannot be assessed at the present time. We acknowledge excellent support from the ESO observing staff in Paranal, especially Stephane Brillant, Joe Anderson, and Bian Fuyan. DBM also acknowledges useful discussion with Amy Lien (GSFC/UMBC) about the classification of this GRB.