TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22944 SUBJECT: GRB 180703A: optical afterglow confirmation DATE: 18/07/13 11:55:46 GMT FROM: Cristiano Guidorzi at Ferrara U,Italy C. Guidorzi, R. Martone (U. Ferrara), S. Kobayashi (LJMU), C.G. Mundell (U. Bath), A. Gomboc (U. Nova Gorica), I.A. Steele (LJMU), A. Cucchiara, D. Morris (U. of Virgin Islands) on behalf of a large collaboration report: We observed Fermi-LAT GRB 180703A (Racusin et al. GCN 22883) with the LCO 2-m unit in Hawaii (former FTN) on July 12, 17:46 UT (8.9 days after the GRB trigger time) with the SDSS i' filter. We do not detect the optical candidate (Guidorzi et al. GCN 22892) found on the border of the Swift-XRT error circle of the confirmed X-ray afterglow (Gibson et al. GCN 22931) down to a limit magnitude of i'> 22.0 with a 5x120s exposure. We therefore confirm the nature of optical afterglow of the candidate. A comparison between the images taken at both epochs is available at the link below. http://www.fe.infn.it/u/guidorzi/new_guidorzi_files/180703A_OT.png