TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 1890 SUBJECT: GRB 030226: Confirmed decay index DATE: 03/02/26 22:44:18 GMT FROM: Paul Price at RSAA, ANU P.A. Price and B.E. Warren (RSAA, ANU) report: We have observed the afterglow of GRB 030226 (GCN ##1879,1880) with the ANU 2.3m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. We detect the afterglow in a single 300 sec exposure with the Imager at Feb 26.67 UT. Using the same reference star as von Braun et al. (GCN #1881), we measure that the afterglow was R ~ 19.2 mag at the epoch of our observation. The derived temporal decay index is alpha ~ 0.88, in agreement with the earlier index reported by Fox et al. (GCN #1883). This message may be cited.