TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 282 SUBJECT: GRB 990316 Optical Observations DATE: 99/03/22 23:26:48 GMT FROM: Andreas O. Jaunsen at Inst. for Theor. Astrophysics,Noa.o.jaunsen@astro.uio.no A. O. Jaunsen (University of Oslo), M. I. Andersen (Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma), J. Hjorth, and H. Pedersen (University of Copenhagen) report: We obtained R band images of the area around the possible LOTIS optical counterpart to GRB 990316 (GCN #277) with the Nordic Optical Telescope on March 18.865 (1800 sec, FWHM = 1.40") and March 19.118 (1200 sec, FWHM = 1.45"). We find no evidence for variable objects in the 6' x 6' field centred on the LOTIS position. A plot of the difference in inferred magnitude versus magnitude for objects detected in the field is posted on the web page given below. Comparison between a combined image of our NOT data and the KPNO R-band image (Bond et al., GCN #278) also give no significantly variable object. All images obtained of the LOTIS position may be combined to reach fainter detection levels. For this purpose we make our fully reduced and WCS (USNO A2.0) calibrated NOT images available at http://www.astro.uio.no/~ajaunsen/grb990316/ .