A search for the IR counterpart of the black hole candidate 4U 1630-47

We present the first attempt to localize the IR counterpart of the recurrent, ultra soft X-ray transient 4U 1630-47. We have obtained two sets of K band images of this highly obscured region, during both outburst and quiescence. The recent radio position reported by Hjellming et al. (1999) allow us to perform accurate astrometry on the field. We discuss three stars which lie near the radio position: although two have colours which appear to be consistent with the reddening towards 4U 1630-47, neither are strongly variable. Deeper IR monitoring, during both outburst and quiescence, is required to reliably identify an IR counterpart.