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Description
We report the results of a 5 year CCD imaging program of small gamma-ray burst (GRB) error boxes from the First Interplanetary Network and an optical transient field. The fields include GBS 0010-16, GBS 0552-08, GBS 1028+46, GBS 1205+23, GBS 1412+79, OTS 1809+31, GBS 2006-22, and GBS 2252-03. A total of 274 hours of open shutter time was used to obtain multiple UBVI-filtered frames covering an area approximately twice that of the 99% confidence localizations. For 2070 objects in these fields above the survey detection limit of V~24, 79,000 calibrated photometric measurements were made. The objectives of the survey were to search for objects of unusual colors, variability, or proper motions. The final census of objects in these fields is consistent with the expected numbers of normal stars, galaxies, and proper motion objects based on statistics of large-scale surveys. While no obvious GRB optical counterparts were found, several potentially interesting objects were discovered, along with marginal evidence for a QSO excess at the rate of one per high Galactic latitude localization. The results and implications are discussed in detail along with suggestions for future work.
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