Re: SGR 1900+14 / bright optical counterpart > By comparison to images of the Digitized Sky Survey of generation 2 / red > and blue, a new and bright object was visible at position 19 07 15.18 +09 19 > 22.6, astrometrically traceable to the USNO-A2.0 frame. > > The brightness of this new object and its neareness to the published > coordinates (19 07 14.33 +09 19 21.1 from radio interferometry) make this > object the probable optical counterpart of the active gamma ray burster. I would presume that this object is a normal M-type giant, which is not the counterpart of the SGR. There is a finding chart in Vrba et al. (1996) ApJ 225, 230. This red star is a double star, which explains the slightly elongated appearance on Berto's image. This red star is slightly variable (Vrba et al. 1996), having V=24.5, which explains the absence on DSS images. IRAS19048+0914 190451.9 +091435 (1950.0) F12=3.02 F25=5.75 F60=9.12 F100=39.80 VAR= 8 LRS=-1 VIII: different sort of object 190715.1 +091919 (2000.0) IRAS19048+0914 3.064 5.811 9.227 38.150 8% 190715.1 +091919 (2000.0) SSC19048+0914 3.064 5.811 9.227 38.150 190715.1 +091921 (2000.0) MSX5C_G043.0229+00.7626 -16 -8 2 3 2 4 V(%):-:-:3:2:3:3 Deeper images of the SGR 1900+14 field can be seen in ApJ 566, 378 (Kaplan et al. 2002). Regards, Taichi Kato