TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  652
SUBJECT: GRB 000418, optical observation
DATE:    00/04/27 16:43:56 GMT
FROM:    Arne A. Henden at USNO/USRA  <aah@nofs.navy.mil>

A. Henden (USRA/USNO) and H. Harris (USNO),
 on behalf of the USNO GRB team,
S. Klose, (Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg),
 on behalf of a much larger European team, report:

We have observed the error box of GRB 000418
with the NOFS 1.3-m automated telescope on
000426 UT with a total exposure time of 1800
seconds in Cousins R.  At the position of the proposed
afterglow candidate (Klose et. al. GCN #645)
we find a faint source near our limiting
magnitude.  With respect to the USNO-A2.0
star used by Mirabal et. al. (GCN #646, #650),
we obtain

RA 12:25:19.30  DEC +20:06:11.6 +/- 0.3  J2000
UT 000426.316  R=22.49 +/- 0.20

We will be calibrating this field in UBVRI
over the weekend.