TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 2956 SUBJECT: GRB 050117: Optical observation DATE: 05/01/17 18:43:54 GMT FROM: Ken ichi Torii at RIKEN K. Torii (Osaka University) reports: The error region of SWIFT GRB 050117 (Burrows, et al. GCN 2951; Sakamoto, et al. GCN 2952) was observed with the 14-inch ART at Osaka University. The observation started at 2005 January 17, 14:05 UT and a sequence of 60-s exposures in B, V, Rc, and Ic was repeated. We note that Galactic extinction is severe in the burst direction (E(B-V) = 1.7 or A_R = 4.6 according to Schlegel, et al. 1998) and compared our stacked Ic-band frame (60-s x 10 frames, mean epoch 14:38 UT) with the USNO-A2.0 (R) magnitude. As a result of the preliminary analysis, no new source brighter than about 17.5 mag is identified within the refined XRT error region (Hill, et al. GCN 2955). ===