GCN Circular 2031

E. O. Ofek, A. Gal-Yam, Y. Lipkin, K. Sharon and E. Medezinski 
(Wise observatory, TAU) report:

We searched for archival CONCAM (www.concam.net) images 
covering the trigger time of GRB 030329 (March 29, 11:37:14, 
Ricker et al. GCN 1997
Not found
 
 
). This part of the night was covered by 
CONCAM units at Kitt Peak and Mount Wilson Observatories. 
Unfortunately, CONCAM images for that night from Mauna Kea 
Observatory in Hawaii are uavailable on the net.

CONCAM images covering the exact time of the GRB
trigger do not appear in the web archives of both sites (Kitt
Peak and Mount Wilson). We were therefore limited to the analysis 
of images taken a few minutes before and after the GRB.
We could not detect an OT to a conservative limiting magnitude of 3.5.

The Kitt peak images are superior: four 180 s CONCAM images, 
taken at Mar 29, 11:29:57, 11:33:52, 11:41:46 and 11:45:42 UT
were searched. The magnitude limit is shallow as the GRB 
location was near the horizon at Keat Peak. 

If the instantaneous optical display associated with GRB 030329 
(z=0.1685, Greiner et al. GCN 2020
Not found
 
 
) had been similar to that of GRB 990123 
(z=1.6), which peaked above mag 9, then after appropriate scaling 
by the luminosity distance (for a flat Universe with omega=0.3, 
neglecting effects of extinction), we would expect GRB 030329 
to be ~240 times brighter than GRB 990123. This means that an
optical source with mag ~3 should have been apparent on 
contemporaneous CONCAM images.