TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  653
SUBJECT: GRB 000418, Optical Observation
DATE:    00/04/28 13:51:38 GMT
FROM:    Nestor Mirabal at Columbia U.  <abulafia@astro.columbia.edu>

N. Mirabal, J. P. Halpern (Columbia U.), R. M. Wagner (Ohio State U.)
report on behalf of the MDM Observatory GRB follow-up team:

"We obtained additional R-band images of the afterglow candidate
for GRB 000418(Klose et al., GCN #645) using the
MDM 2.4m telescope. The object located at (J2000) RA 12:25:19.30,
Dec. +20:06:11.1 has an estimated magnitude R = 22.8 +/- 0.31 on
April 28.3 UT, this magnitude is referenced to USNO star
(J2000) RA 12:25:25.62, Dec +20:04:57.8 (R = 15.4).
The decline is consistent with the -0.84 +/- 0.2 power-law
derived from previous detections (Mirabal et al., GCN #646,#650). In
addition we note that the OT appears to be slightly extended which might
be an indication of residual light from an underlying host galaxy.

This message may be cited."