A first glance at SGR 0526-66 only 2.6 days after 5 March 1979

By chance, a Schmidt plate (+ H-alpha filter) was taken on 6 March 1979, 2. 6 days after the famous soft gamma-ray burst that took place on 5 March. An other four plates were exposed through WBR filters four to six days after t he event. N49 - the plerionic supernova remnant presumably related to. the soft gamma ray repeater - and the surrounding area have been examined, on t he basis comparison with another plates taken at different epochs. No optic al transient has been found within the SGR error box, nor at the position o f the point X-ray source observed by ROSAT. Any variability was smaller tha n 0.5 mag for objects brighter than U = 18, B = 18, V = 18 and R = 20. This negative result could favour the existence of a beamed outflow that it is not aligned with the line of sight.