TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 8018 SUBJECT: GRB 080723A: optical upper limit DATE: 08/07/25 14:19:30 GMT FROM: Graziella Pizzichini at IASF/CNR,Bologna F. Munz (INAF/IASF Bologna), F. Terra (Second University of Roma "Tor Vergata"),,G. Greco, C. Bartolini, A. Guarnieri, A. Piccioni (Bologna University), G. Pizzichini (INAF/IASF Bologna), D. Nanni (INAF/OAR and Second University of Rome "Tor Vergata"), S. Galleti, R. Gualandi (Bologna Observatory) report: We observed the field of GRB 080723A (GCN 8000 Stamatikos et al.) with the 152 cm telescope located in Loiano under clear sky conditions (seeing~2.5"). In our 20 min exposure in the Rc filter at mean time 2008 July 23 20.62 UT we do not detect any afterglow candidate in the enhanced Swift-XRT position (GCN 8001, Beardmore et al.). Our 3-sigma limiting magnitude is R~20 (based on Nomad1 catalogue). In this area there is a strong galactic extinction, A_lambda ~ 4 mag in R from the NASA/IPAC extragalactic data base. The image has been posted in our public directory from where it can be retrieved by sftp using hostname: ermione.bo.astro.it username: publicGRB password: GRB_bo directory: GRB080723A