TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  423
SUBJECT: GRB 991014, Optical Observations
DATE:    99/10/16 13:57:14 GMT
FROM:    Jules Halpern at Columbia U.  <jules@astro.columbia.edu>

J. Thorstensen (Dartmouth), R. Uglesich, J. Halpern, N. Mirabal
(Columbia U.), E. Costa, M. Feroci, L. Piro (IAS/CNR, Rome)
report on behalf of the MDM Observatory GRB follow-up team
and the BeppoSAX team:

"We imaged the field of GRB 991014 in the R band starting on
Oct. 15.38 UT, 11.2 hours after the burst, using the MDM 
Observatory's 1.3m and 2.4m telescopes.  The entire 6' radius 
error circle from the BeppoSAX WFC (Gandolfi, GCN #417) was covered
at the 1.3m, and the entire 2' radius NFI error circle of a possible
X-ray afterglow (BeppoSAX MAIL n. 99/28) was covered at the 2.4m.
There was no new object brighter than the digitized POSS-II limit in 
the WFC error circle.

We reobserved the NFI error circle on the 2.4m on Oct. 16.42 UT.
Seeing was 1.1-1.2 arcseconds on both nights, and the 5 sigma
limiting magnitude was R = 23.1.  No variable object was detected
in the NFI error circle.  This magnitude limit is referenced to a
USNO star at position (J2000) RA 06:51:03.17, Dec +11:36:42.6 which
has R = 17.61 +/- 0.02 according to the recent calibration of
Henden et al. (GCN #422).

This message may be cited."