"Pi of the Sky" - all-sky, real-time search for fast optical transients

Abstract

An apparatus to search for optical flashes in the sky is described. It has been optimized for gamma ray bursts (GRB) optical counterparts. It consists of 2x16 cameras covering all the sky. The sky is monitored continuously and the data are analysed on-line. It has self-triggering capability and can react to external triggers with negative delay. The prototype with two cameras has been installed at Las Campanas (Chile) and is operational from July 2004. The paper presents general idea and describes the apparatus in detail. Performance of the prototype is briefly reviewed and perspectives for the future are outlined.

References in corpus (8)

• Observation of contemporaneous optical radiation from a gamma-ray burst
• The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System
• The All Sky Automated Survey
• The RAPTOR Experiment: A System for Monitoring the Optical Sky in Real Time
• Prompt Optical Observations of Gamma-ray Bursts
• The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
• Optical Flashes Preceding GRBs
• TALON - The Telescope Alert Operation Network System: Intelligent Linking of Distributed Autonomous Robotic Telescopes

Cited by in corpus (27)

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• PSF modelling for very wide-field CCD astronomy
• Limits on the flux of nuclearites and other heavy compact objects from the "Pi of the Sky" project
• Optical Transient Object Classification in Wide Field Small Aperture Telescopes with Neural Networks
• A marginally fast-cooling proton-synchrotron model for prompt GRBs
• Dwarf Novae in the Shortest Orbital Period Regime: II. WZ Sge Stars as the Missing Population near the Period Minimum
• HS Hya about to turn off its eclipses
• Absolute parameters of AE For -- a highly active detached binary of late K type
• The period analysis of V418 Aql, SU Boo, RV CVn, CR Cas, GV Cyg, V432 Per, and BD+42 2782
• STILT: System Design & Performance
• Accurate Telescope Mount Positioning with MEMS Accelerometers
• The catalog of short periods stars from the ''Pi of the Sky'' data
• Light-time effect detected in fourteen eclipsing binaries
• V456 Ophiuchi and V490 Cygni: Systems with the shortest apsidal-motion periods
• A new era of sub-millimeter GRB afterglow follow-ups with the Greenland Telescope
• Constraints on the optical precursor to the naked-eye burst GRB080319B from Pi of the Sky observations
• The Optical Luminosity Function of Gamma-ray Bursts deduced from ROTSE-III Observations
• Delayed Onset and Fast Rise of Prompt Optical-UV Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts in Molecular Clouds
• GK Boo and AE For: Two low-mass eclipsing binaries with dwarf companions
• Learning Transient Universe in Near-Ultraviolet By Wide-angle Cameras
• New eccentric eclipsing binary in triple system: SY Phe
• The New Milky Way: a wide-field survey of optical transients near the Galactic plane
• V773 Cas, QS Aql, and BR Ind: Eclipsing Binaries as Parts of Multiple Systems
• Apsidal motion and TESS light curves of two southern eclipsing binaries with high eccentricity: V1647 Sgr and V2283 Sgr