NGC 1313 X-2 is one of the brightest ultraluminous X-ray sources in the sky,
at both X-ray and optical wavelengths; therefore, quite a few studies of
available ESO VLT and HST data have appeared in the literature. Here, we
present our analysis of VLT/FORS1 and HST/ACS photometric data, confirming the
identification of the B ~ 23 mag blue optical counterpart. We show that the
system is part of a poor cluster with an age of 20 Myr, leading to an upper
mass limit of some 12 M_sun for the mass donor. We attribute the different
results with respect to earlier studies to the use of isochrones in the F435W
and F555W HST/ACS photometric system that appear to be incompatible with the
corresponding Johnson B and V isochrones. The counterpart exhibits significant
photometric variability of about 0.2 mag amplitude, both between the two HST
observations and during the one month of monitoring with the VLT. This includes
variability within one night and suggests that the light is dominated by the
accretion disk in the system and not by the mass donor.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic