Optical observations of PSR1706$-$44 with the Test Camera of the VLT-UT1

Abstract

We report on the optical observations of the gamma-ray pulsar PSR1706-44 performed with the Test Camera of the VLT-UT1 during the telescope Science Verification programme. With a limiting magnitude of V~ 27.5, these are the deepest optical observations ever performed for this pulsar, for which, however, no likely counterpart has been detected. The non-detection of PSR1706-44 sets an upper limit on its optical luminosity varying from 2 10^28 to 5 10^29 erg/ s, depending on the exact amount of interstellar absorption.