TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 9513 SUBJECT: GRB090618: P60 Optical Afterglow DATE: 09/06/18 08:49:37 GMT FROM: S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech S. B. Cenko (UC Berkeley) reports on behalf of a larger collaboration: We have imaged the field of GRB090618 (Swift trigger 355083) with the automated Palomar 60-inch telescope beginning at 08:30 UT on 18 June 2009 (approximately 2 minutes after the burst). At the edge of the XRT error circle we detect a bright point source with coordinates: RA: 19:35:58.68 Dec: +78:21:24.4 (J2000.0) Using several SDSS stars in the field as reference, we estimate an initial magnitude of r' ~ 13.8. Given the brightness of the source, we consider it highly likely to be the optical afterglow of GRB090618. Further observations are ongoing.