TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 602 SUBJECT: GRB 000301C: HST/STIS CCD Imaging of the field DATE: 00/03/09 23:15:11 GMT FROM: Andrew S. Fruchter at STScI A. Fruchter (STScI), A. Smette (GSFC), T. Gull (GSFC), R. Gibbons, H. Ferguson, L. Petro, K. Sahu (STScI) for a larger HST GRB Collaboration. We have imaged the field of GRB 000301C with HST using the STIS CCD 50LP (open) mode. The observations were performed on the 6.22 March 2000 UT with a total exposure time of 1440s. We easily detect the transient believed to be associated with GRB 000301C (Fynbo et al GCN 570, Bernabei et al. GCN 571). We find a source magnitude of R=21.5 +/- 0.15 or V=21.9 +/- 0.15, where the error is dominated by the wide bandpass of the STIS detector and the uncertainty in the color of the transient (Halpern et al. GCN 585). The OT is relatively well represented by a point source: any underlying galaxy would have to have R >~ 24, or be unusually compact for it to avoid detection in our data. We therefore believe that the apparent flattening of the light curve in the R band reported by many observers is not due to an underlying host galaxy but rather is intrinsic to transient. The red galaxy to the north east of the transient reported by Rhoads and Fruchter (GCN 586) is detected in our image; however, there is no apparent bridge of emission between these two objects. We therefore now believe it is quite likely that they are unrelated. The image is available at http://www.stsci.edu/~fruchter/GRB/000301C