LOTIS: GRB follow-up observations at early times

LOTIS is an automated wide field-of-view telescope system capable of respon ding to GRB events as early as 10 s after a trigger from the GCN which rapi dly distributes coordinates from the BeppoSAX, BATSE and RXTE instruments. Measurements of optical activity at these early times will provide importan t clues to the GRB production mechanism. In over two year's of operation, L OTIS has responded to 40 GCN triggers including GRB 971227 within 10 s and GRB 980703 within 5 hours. We report results from these events and constrai nts on simultaneous optical signals during these GRBs.