The error radius is now of 2'. Due to Sun constraints BeppoSAX cannot perform a follow-on observation with the NFIs. Since the limiting magnitude of the DSS image is at least 21, the new source is most likely the optical counterpart of GRB 990712. Further observations are urged. The image has a dimension of 5 x 4 arcmin.
North is up and East is to the left.
We caution however that the hypothesis of a bright host galaxy is based on just a few data points. To test this hypothesis continued monitoring of the system is therefore urged. The R-band light curve of the optical afterglow of GRB 990712. The three first points are from SAAO, the last point is based on the NTT image. Error bars are about the size of the data points.