COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
          INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                      Number 2765

                                           Konkoly Observatory
                                           Budapest
                                           26 July 1985

                                           HU ISSN 0374 - 0676


       ON STAR-LIKE IMAGES NEAR THE GAMMA BURST SOURCE GBS 1901+14


  A careful examination of the sky area around the position of the gamma-
ray burst source GBS 1901+14 from 1979 March 24/25/27 (Mazets, E.P., et al.
1981, Astrophys.Space Sci. 80, 3-143) has been performed using the collection
of archival plates at the Sonneberg Observatory. Three unique star-like objects
have been found on three of altogether 1910 plates, taken by H. Huth and
predecessors. They were examined for a probable optical counterpart of the
above mentioned gamma-ray burst.
  The search enclosed 1762 sky patrol plates of the years 1928 to 1984 and
148 plates taken with the 17/120 cm and the 14/70 cm astrographic cameras
in the years 1929 to 1961. The exposure times of the plates range from 30
to 60 minutes. The brightness of the three images is considerably greater
than the limiting magnitude of the plates of ~13. The middle of the exposure
times of the respective patrol plates and the estimated image positions are
given in the following table:

                     Table I

                     Heliocentric     JD

          Plate      (Date UT)        alpha1950.0     delta1950.0

Image 1   Te20 646    2438594.518     19h0m47s+/-5s   15deg5'+/-1'
                     (1964 July 18)
Image 2   Te2 1994   2437189.344      18h59m47s+/-5s  13deg48'+/-1'
                     (1960 Sep.11)
Image 3   T 5053     2432803.386      19h3m13s+/-5s   14deg6'+/-1'
                     (1948 Sep.8)

  All three images are not distinguishable from normal stars. Image 3 even
shows the distortion caused by the objective. The plate 646 is the last of
three immediately successive exposures and shows the image to lie on the
border of the very narrow error box of GBS 1901+14. In contrast, the other
images have probably no connection with the gamma-ray burst source because
of their spacing of ~2 arcmin to the error box. However, there exist other
possible explanations for such flash-like objects (for example U Geminorum
stars).





  Investigations at a photometer are in progress in order to provide further
arguments concerning the possible explanation of these images to be plate
defects.

  We thank all colleagues, especially Drs. G. Richter and W. Wenzel for the
helpful support at Sonneberg Observatory where this work was done.





                      J. GREINER, J. FLOHRER

                      Institut fur Kosmosforschung
                      DDR - 1199 Berlin
                      Rudower Chaussee 5