  By using recent publicly available observational data obtained in conjunction
with the NASA Swift gamma-ray burst mission and a novel data analysis
technique, we have been able to make some rough estimates of the GRB afterglow
apparent optical brightness distribution function. The results suggest that 71%
of all burst afterglows have optical magnitudes with mR < 22.1 at 1000 seconds
after the burst onset, the dimmest detected object in the data sample. There is
a strong indication that the apparent optical magnitude distribution function
peaks at mR ~ 19.5. Such estimates may prove useful in guiding future plans to
improve GRB counterpart observation programs. The employed numerical techniques
might find application in a variety of other data analysis problems in which
the intrinsic distributions must be inferred from a heterogeneous sample.

Astrophysics