TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 713 SUBJECT: GRB 000615, near-infrared observations DATE: 00/06/17 20:15:25 GMT FROM: Sylvio Klose at TLS Tautenburg 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) 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. This message is quotable.