GRB 030823

K.Y Huang, Y. Urata, S. Takahashi,  W.P. Chen , J.W. Chen, 
Y.S. Li, H.C. Lin, S.K. King and W.H. Ip  report;

"We have observed the entire error region of HETE-2 SXC of
GRB030823(= H2818) with the Lulin observatory 1.0 m telescope 
starting at Aug. 23 12.406 UT. Muti-band images were taken by 
PI1300 camera (10'x 10' field of view).
 The limiting magnitude of R-band images taken with 60 sec 
exposure is 18.8 mag(SN=3, with USNO-A2.0 red magnitudes).
Comparison with the DSS2 images, no new object was detected down 
to the limiting magnitude.The observation are in progress."

J. Wren and W.T. Vestrand report on behalf of the RAPTOR team;

Both telescope arrays of our RAPTOR stereoscopic sky monitoring system
responded to the first HETE-2 ground notice for GRB030823 (2818).  The
first image was taken at 11:10:24.74 UT -- 4 seconds after receipt of
the GCN notice and 2.3 hours after the burst itself.  The initial
images from RAPTOR-A reached an unfiltered limiting magnitude of 16.0.
Comparison against our own archival frames and the USNO-A2.0 catalog
within 10 arcminutes of the coordinates given in the second HETE
ground notice (HETE 2818 seq. 4) yielded no candidate objects.

M. Suzuki, Y. Yatsu, Y. Kuramoto, and N. Kawai report:
 
 "We have observed the field covering the entire SXC error box of
 GRB030823 (HETE trigger 2818; trigger time 08:52:40 UT) with the
 unfiltered CCD camera on the 30-cm telescope at Tokyo Tech, beginning
 at 10:43:19 UT.  We started the observation earlier than the GCN notice,
 since M.S., as a member of the HETE ops team, had access to the
 preliminary WXM ground location before its validity was evaluated.
 
 Visual inspection of the images revealed no obvious new source compared
 with the DSS 2 (red) to an approximate limiting magnitude of 16.5."

D.B. Fox and M.P. Hunt (Caltech) report on behalf of the Caltech-NRAO
GRB Collaboration:  

"We have observed the HETE-2 SXC localization region for GRB030823
with the 200-inch Hale Telescope and Large-Format Camera on
Mt. Palomar on August 24.15 and August 25.23 UT.  Our dithered 4x300s
images cover the full localization region on each night at mean epochs
of 0.78 and 1.86 days after the burst, respectively.  PSF-matched
image subtraction reveals no bright, variable sources within the SXC
error box.  We therefore derive a limit of R>22.5 on the brightness of
any variable optical counterpart at the epoch of our first
observation."

M.A. Ibrahimov, I.M. Asfandiyarov, B.B. Kahharov (UBAI), A.Pozanenko (IKI),
V.Rumyantsev, E.Pavlenko, O. Antoniuk (CrAO),  G.Beskin (SAO) report:

We have observed the entire SXC error box of  GRB030823 (HETE trigger 2818)
with different instruments. The observations started at 15:46 UT (6.9h after
burst) with 1.5m telescope of Maidanak High-altitude Observatory (UBAI).
Two sets of images (##1,2 in a table below) covering entire  SXC error box
at different epochs were taken with 1.5m telescope. Visual comparison of
images at two different epochs reveals no bright variable source.
Observations at Crimean Astrophysical Observatory were carried out with
AT-64 and K-380 telescopes. Visual comparison of all images with DSS2
reveals no new sources down to limiting magnitude indicated in the table.

#    Mid. Time  Telescope     Exposure  Limiting
     (UT)                               magnitude
                                        (R)
1    23.6651    1.5m (UBAI)   300s      19.5
2    23.7805    1.5m (UBAI)   300s      20.5
3    23.7826    AT-64 (CrAO)  7x180s    20.5
4    23.8131    K-380 (CrAO)  6x300s    19.0

GRB 030823 observation at Ouda

A. Imada, T. Kato (Kyoto U) and H. Yamaoka (Kyushu U) report:

  "We observed the entire SXC error circle of GRB (XRF) 030823
with Ouda 0.60-m telescope starting at Aug. 24.61 UT, i.e., 1.24 days
after the burst.  The limiting magnitude of a stacked Rc-band image
(60 x 60 seconds exposure) is 20.5 mag, compared with USNO-A2.0 rmag.
Visual comparison with the DSS 2 red image yields no new source."

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