GCN Circular 713

S. Klose, B. Stecklum (Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg),
O. Fischer (Universitaets-Sternwarte Jena), 
J. Greiner (AIP Potsdam),
S. Hippler (Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie, Heidelberg),
R. Davies (Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching),
L. Montoya (Calar Alto observatory),
F. J. Vrba, A. A. Henden, C. B. Luginbuhl, B. Canzian, S. E. Levine, 
   H. H. Guetter, J. A. Munn (U.S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff),
D. H. Hartmann (Clemson University, Clemson), 
A. Castro-Tirado (LAEFF-INTA, Madrid, and IAA-CSIC, Granada), 
J. Gorosabel (DSRI, Copenhagen), 
J. M. Castro Ceron (ROA, San Fernando), and
M. R. Zapatero-Osorio, D. M. Delgado, S. Chueca, M. J. Arevalo
   (IAC, Tenerife)

report:


The refined error box of GRB 000615 (Gandolfi et al. GCN #705
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 ) was
imaged in two successive runs with the Calar Alto 3.5-m telescope on
June 15, 22:09 UT - 00:25 UT using the near-infrared camera Omega Cass
in the polarimetric mode. The limiting magnitude of either K'-band
image is about K'=19 after adding all frames taken at different
position angles of the wire-grid  polarizer.

A red source in the GRB error box with no counterpart on the DSS-2 red
image is at RA, DEC (J2000) = 15:32:35.16, 73:50:45.2 (+/- 1
arcsec). We estimate its magnitude K'=19. Further data reduction is
in progress, the K'-band magnitude can be improved. This source is
also barely visible on an R-band image taken at USNO with the 1.0-m
telescope on June 16, 03:48 UT (limiting magnitude about R=21). It is
also visible as a faint source on an I-band image taken with the IAC
80 telescope on June 15.9 UT (limiting magnitude about 20.5).

We note we do not claim that this is a fading source, since second
epoch K'-band data are not available. At the present stage we cannot
rule out that this is a faint Galactic star with an R-K color of
about 2 mag.


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