TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  576
SUBJECT: GRB 000301C: OT confirmed
DATE:    00/03/03 23:21:41 GMT
FROM:    Brian Lindgren Jensen at U.of Copenhagen  <brian_j@astro.ku.dk>

J. P. U. Fynbo (U. of Aarhus),
B. L. Jensen, J. Hjorth, H. Pedersen (U. of Copenhagen),
J. Gorosabel (DSRI, Copenhagen)
on behalf of a large European GRB Consortium report:

"In response to Garnevich et al., (GCN #573), we have
carried out photometry of stars A-D of GCN #573
and of the OT proposed by Fynbo et al., (GCN #570).
This photometry has been performed on our combined
2000, March 3, 3x900s NOT R-band image of the GRB-field.

 Using the stars A-D of Garnevich et al.
as reference, we derive an R-band magnitude for the OT
at UT_mean = March 3.17 of    R = 19.94+-0.04.

Hence, the candidate OT is fading and we thus propose
it as being the optical counterpart to GRB 000301C.

The implied power-law decay index from this magnitude
and the magnitude measured by Garnevich et al.
is rather steep : -1.8
(with this rate, a magnitude of R:20.8 is predicted for 
March 4.17 UT)."