We obtained 98 R -band and 18 B , r ^ { \prime } , i ^ { \prime } images of the optical afterglow of GRB 060526 ( z = 3.21 ) with the MDM 1.3m , 2.4m , and the PROMPT telescopes in Cerro Tololo over the 5 nights following the burst trigger .
Combining these data with other optical observations reported in GCN and the Swift -XRT observations , we compare the optical and X-ray afterglow light curves of GRB 060526 .
Both the optical and X-ray afterglow light curves show rich features , such as flares and breaks .
The densely sampled optical observations provide very good coverage at T > 10 ^ { 4 } sec .
We observed a break at 2.4 \times 10 ^ { 5 } sec in the optical afterglow light curve .
Compared with the X-ray afterglow light curve , the break is consistent with an achromatic break supporting the beaming models of GRBs .
However , the pre-break and post-break temporal decay slopes are difficult to explain in simple afterglow models .
We estimated a jet angle of \theta _ { j } \sim 7 ^ { \circ } and a prompt emission size of R _ { prompt } \sim 2 \times 10 ^ { 14 } cm .
In addition , we detected several optical flares with amplitudes of \Delta m \sim 0.2 , 0.6 , and 0.2 mag .
The X-ray afterglows detected by Swift have shown complicated decay patterns .
Recently , many well-sampled optical afterglows also show decays with flares and multiple breaks .
GRB 060526 provides an additional case of such a complex , well observed optical afterglow .
The accumulated well-sampled afterglows indicate that most of the optical afterglows are complex .