GCN Circular 1882

M. Ando, K. Ohta, C. Watanabe (Kyoto Univ.),  K. Aoki, Y. Ohyama,
K. S. Kawabata, S. Harasawa, D. Scarla (Subaru NAOJ), and
N. Kawai (Tokyo Tech) report:

We have obtained optical images and optical spectra of the afterglow
of GRB030226 (=H10893) with FOCAS attached to Subaru 8.2m on Mauna Kea.

R-, I-, and z'-band images taken at Feb 26.29 (UT) reveal the presence
of the optical afterglow with an R magnitude of ~17.8 mag.  We derived
a position of RA=11:33:04.9, Dec=+25:53:55 (J2000) with an accuracy of
1" using the USNO A-2.0 catalog.

We have also taken optical spectra covering wavelength regions of
3700-6000 A and 5800-10000 A at Feb 26.31 (UT) with an exposure time
of 20 min. each.  The spectral resolutions are about R=1000.  The
optical spectra show intergalactic absorption lines clearly; roughly
derived the highest redshift absorbers are MgII 2800 and CVI 1550 at
z=2.1, indicating that a redshift of GRB 030226 is 2.1 or larger.

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