  Rapid, multi-color optical monitoring carried out for a multiwavelength
campaign during 22-27 August 2000 is presented for the bright and variable BL
Lac object PKS 2005-489. Previous multiwavelength monitoring campaigns of PKS
2005-489 have found complex variability behavior both in flux density and in
broadband spectrum, with different modes and timescales from days to hours.
During this campaign, PKS 2005-489 was observed to be in an unusual state,
bright in the optical but faint in the X-ray, just prior to an X-ray flare that
began on 2 September 2000. PKS 2005-489 was also observed to have a flatter
optical spectrum than prior epochs. A linear increase in optical flux density
was observed during the first 5.2 days of the campaign. However, intraday and
color variability were not detected. The large discrepancy between the ratio of
X-ray to optical flux density observed during this campaign and that observed
in prior epochs indicates a lack of long-term correlation between the two
wavebands; and it illustrates that simple particle injection events in the jet
are insufficient to explain the long-term variability behavior of this object.
Twenty-three in-field standard stars are identified for future optical
monitoring programs.
