{
  "bibcode": "1998GCN...123....1R",
  "body": "James Rhoads, Ron Downes, and Jennifer Christensen report on behalf\nof the Kitt Peak Gamma Ray Burst followup team:\n\nRon Downes and Jennifer Christensen observed the error box of GRB\n980703 in R band with the Kitt Peak National Observatory 0.9m\ntelescope.  Total integration time was 1 hour, beginning at \n980704 09:51 UT.  The field of view is 23 arcminutes, and so includes\nthe entire RXTE and BeppoSAX error boxes for the gamma ray burst.\nThe seeing was poor but the weather was otherwise good.\n\nWe compared our images with the digitized POSS II image of the field.\nOur image is considerably deeper than the POSS II, and so contained\nmany objects not visible there.  However, none of these was clearly\nbrighter than the POSS II limiting magnitude, which we can therefore\ntake as the upper limit for any GRB afterglow in this field\n(approximately R ~ 20, based on flux measurements in our image for\nmarginal detections on the POSS II).\n\nOne moving source with R ~ 19.5 was detected, presumably a main belt\nasteroid (the ecliptic latitude of the field is about 7 degrees),\nwhich was travelling towards the east northeast at (very roughly) 27\narcseconds per hour.  We estimate that this object was in the RXTE\nerror box from about 0400 to 1600 UT, near the center of the RXTE\nerror box around 1000 UT, and near the center of the BeppoSAX error\ncircle (cf. BeppoSAX GRB Mail n. 98/22) around 1600 UT on 980704.\n\nBased on the RMS noise in our image and a rough photometric\ncalibration from standard stars in the Mark A field, we estimate\na 4 sigma limiting magnitude in a 4\" diameter aperture between\nR=23.0 and R=23.2.\n\nWe will provide further details and a link to our final image at\n  http://www.noao.edu/noao/grb/980703.html .\nYou are welcome to use this data as a comparison epoch in counterpart\nsearches.  We request that we (Ron Downes, Jennifer Christensen, and\nJames Rhoads) be included as authors on any afterglow detection or\nupper limit that you arrived at using this image.\n\nThis message can be cited.\n\nJames Rhoads            jrhoads@noao.edu\nRon Downes              downes@stsci.edu\nJennifer Christensen    christen@stsci.edu",
  "circularId": 123,
  "createdOn": 899578585000,
  "email": "rhoads@noao.edu",
  "subject": "GRB980703 optical followup",
  "submitter": "James Rhoads at KPNO  <rhoads@noao.edu>",
  "eventId": "GRB 980703"
}