TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 620 SUBJECT: GRB 000326: Optical Observations DATE: 00/03/28 09:14:35 GMT FROM: Brian Lindgren Jensen at U.of Copenhagen 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."