TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  3693
SUBJECT: GRB 050726, SMARTS optical/IR observations
DATE:    05/07/28 05:18:50 GMT
FROM:    Bethany Cobb at Yale U  <cobb@astro.yale.edu>

B. E. Cobb and C. D. Bailyn (Yale), part of the larger SMARTS
consortium, report:

Using the ANDICAM instrument on the 1.3m telescope at CTIO, we
obtained optical/IR imaging of the error region of GRB 050726
(GCN 3682, Barthelmy et al.) with a mid-exposure time of
2005-07-27 00:39 UT, which is ~19.6 hours post-burst.
Total summed exposure times amounted to 36 minutes in I and 30 minutes in 
J, resulting in approximate limiting magnitudes of I>22 and J>20.

In comparison with SDSS and 2MASS frames, no new optical
or IR sources are detected in the vicinity of the
reported X-ray afterglow.

[GCN OPS NOTE(28jul05):  Per author's request, the Subject-line
was changed from "050124" to "050726".]