  The sky region including the Chandra position of SGR 1806-20 was monitored in
the IR band during 2004, following its increased high energy bursting activity.
Observations were performed using NAOS-CONICA, the adaptive optics IR camera
mounted on Yepun VLT, which provided images of unprecedented quality (FWHM
better than 0.1"). After the 2004 December 27th giant flare, the source
position has been nailed by VLA observations of its radio counterpart, reducing
the positional uncertainty to 0.04". Using IR data from our monitoring
campaign, we discovered the likely IR counterpart to SGR 1806-20 based on
positional coincidence with the Chandra and VLA uncertainty regions and flux
variability of a factor of about 2 correlated with that at higher energies. We
compare our findings with other isolated neutron star classes thought to be
related, at some level, with SGRs.
