GCN Circular 1958
Subject
GRB030324, Optical Observations
Date
2003-03-25T23:01:21Z (21 years ago)
From
Eli Rykoff at Univ. of Michigan/ROTSE <erykoff@umich.edu>
E. S. Rykoff and D. A. Smith on behalf of the ROTSE collaboration report:
We have observed the full error box of GRB 030324 (HETE trigger 2641) using
the ROTSE-3B 0.45 meter telescope at McDonald Observatory, Texas, starting
March 24, 4:27 UT (1.24 hours after the burst). Sixty one-minute unfiltered
exposures were taken, with limiting magnitudes between 18.1 and 18.5 calibrated
against USNO A2.0 R-band. We co-added the frames in sets of 20 to achieve
limiting magnitudes of ~ 19.6.
Of the sources detected within the 7' error radius from the position reported
in GCN 1954 (Donaghy, et. al.), most could be associated
with stars in the USNO catalog. None of the others was found to vary over the
hour of observations. Visual comparison between DSS-2 (R-band) and
several ROTSE images reveal no counterpart candidates. We have also compared
the first co-added frame to a co-added follow-up sequence taken the following
night (23 hours after the burst). Visual inspection reveals each ROTSE-III
source visible on March 24 is still visible on March 25.