TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  620
SUBJECT: GRB 000326: Optical Observations
DATE:    00/03/28 09:14:35 GMT
FROM:    Brian Lindgren Jensen at U.of Copenhagen  <brian_j@astro.ku.dk>

B. L. Jensen, H. Pedersen, J. Hjorth (U. of Copenhagen) and
J. Gorosabel (DSRI, Copenhagen) report on behalf of a larger
European GRB consortium:

"Using the WFI at the ESO/MPI 2.2m telescope, La Silla,
we have obtained an R-band exposure of 600 s,
covering the whole of the IPN error-box of GRB 000326
(Hurley et al., GCN #618), on 2000 March 27.41 UT
(i.e. ~29 h after the GRB). The image was taken in
twillight, at airmass~2. No suitable flat-field is
currently available. The depth of this image is
comparable to DSS-2 (red). Seeing is FWHM~1.0".
The faintest objects are R~21.0, based on USNO-A1.0
photometry. We find no bright objects which are
not visible on DSS-2 (red).

At the position of the bright radio source found by
Frail (GCN #619), we find a faint, unresolved object.
A preliminary magnitude of this object (USNO-A1.0) is
R:20.6+-0.3. This object is not seen on DSS-2 (red), 
but this may be due to a nearby, brighter star. The
position (USNO-A1.0) of the object is (J2000)
RA=22:11:22.01, Dec=-26:07:35.8, 1" uncertainty.
Further observations are necessary to determine whether
this object is related to GRB 000326. 

At the positions of the two faint radio-sources mentioned
by Frail, we find no optical sources.

Sections of the image will be made available at:
http://www.astro.ku.dk/~brian_j/grb/grb000326/

We acknowledge the helpful assistance of P. Francois,
at ESO/La Silla."