TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  596
SUBJECT: GRB 000301c: K' observations
DATE:    00/03/07 04:23:14 GMT
FROM:    James Rhoads at STScI  <rhoads@stsci.edu>

James Rhoads and Andy Fruchter (STScI) report:

We observed the candidate counterpart of GRB 000301c for a third time
with the NASA-IRTF + NSFCam on March 6.595.  The magnitude of the transient
relative to the reference star 6" west has decayed to +2.60 +- 0.12,
giving K'=18.56 +- 0.12 (statistical error only).
This is a decay of 0.56 magnitudes since our preceding observation (on
March 5.61 UT), and so the decay of the 2.1 micron flux continues to
accelerate.  The K' band light curve is a considerably worse fit to any
power law than the R band light curve.

This unusual behavior warrants closer investigation, and further followup
at all wavelengths (especially the near-IR) is encouraged.