TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1401 SUBJECT: GRB020531(=H2042): Optical Observations DATE: 02/05/31 17:20:00 GMT FROM: Don Lamb at U.Chicago <lamb@oddjob.uchicago.edu> S. Snedden, D. Q. Lamb, B. C. Lee, D. L. Tucker, D. E. Vanden Berk, M. Harvanek, A. N. Kleinman, S. Kleinman, J. Krzesinski, D. Long, and P. R. Newman, on behalf of the SDSS GRB team, report: "We have observed the field of GRB020531 (=H2042) (GCN 1399) using the SDSS 0.5-m "Photometric Telescope" (PT) at APO under clear skies, a bright moon, and poor seeing on UTC 2002 May 31 from 04:54 to 09:32 UTC, beginning less than 4.5 hours after the burst. We took a series of ten 600 second r'-band exposures and fifteen 600 second i'-band exposures (41.5' x 41.5' field of view) that cover the entire improved HETE error rectangle for GRB020531 (GCN 1399). The summed images in r' reach deeper than the POSS plate limit, R~18. Visual comparison of the images and the DSS has not yet allowed us to identify any bright new object." This message is citable.