The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is a wide-field telescope project focused on detecting optical counterparts to gravitational-wave sources. Each GOTO robotic mount holds eight 40 cm telescopes, giving an overall field of view of 40 square degrees. As of 2022 the first two GOTO mounts have been commissioned at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Canary Islands, and construction of the second node with two additional 8-telescope mounts has begin at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. Once fully operational each GOTO mount will be networked to form a robotic, multi-site observatory, which will survey the entire visible sky every two nights and enable rapid follow-up detections of transient sources.
S. Agayeva, V. Aivazyan, S. Alishov, M. Almualla, C. Andrade, Sarah Antier, J. M. Bai, A. Baransky, S. Basa, P. Bendjoya, Z. Benkhaldoun, S. Beradze, D. Berezin, U. Bhardwaj, M. Blazek, O. Burkhonov, E. Burns, S. Caudill, N. Christensen, F. Colas, A. Coleiro, W. Corradi, M. Coughlin, T. Culino, D. Darson, D. Datashvili, G. de Wasseige, T. Dietrich, F. Dolon, D. Dornic, J. Dubouil, J.-G. Ducoin, P.-A. Duverne, A. Esamdin, A. Fouad, F. Guo, V. Godunova, P. Gokuldass, N. Guessoum, E. Gurbanov, R. Hainich, E. Hasanov, P. Hello, T. Hussenot-Desenonges, R. Inasaridze, A. Iskandar, E.E.O. Ishida, N. Ismailov, T. Jegou du Laz, D.A. Kann, G. Kapanadze, S. Karpov, R.W. Kiendrebeogo, A. Klotz, N. Kochiashvili, A. Kaeouach, J.-P. Kneib, W. Kou, K. Kruiswijk, S. Lombardo, M. Lamoureux, N. Leroy, A. Le Van Su, J. Mao, M. Masek, T. Midavaine, A. Moeller, D. Morris, R. Natsvlishvili, F. Navarete, S. Nissanke, K. Noonan, K. Noysena, N.B. Orange, J. Peloton, M. Pilloix, T. Pradier, M. Prouza, G. Raaijmakers, Y. Rajabov, J.-P. Rivet, Y. Romanyuk, L. Rousselot, F. Ruenger, V. Rupchandani, T. Sadibekova, N. Sasaki, A. Simon, K. Smith, O. Sokoliuk, X. Song, A. Takey, Y. Tillayev, I. Tosta e Melo, D. Turpin, A. de Ugarte Postigo, M. Vardosanidze, X.F. Wang, D. Vernet, Z. Vidadi, J. Zhu, Y. Zhu
GRANDMA is a world-wide collaboration with the primary scientific goal of studying gravitational-wave sources, discovering their electromagnetic counterparts and characterizing their emission. GRANDMA involves astronomers, astrophysicists, gravitational-wave physicists, and theorists. GRANDMA is now a truly global network of telescopes, with (so far) 30 telescopes in both hemispheres. It incorporates a citizen science programme (Kilonova-Catcher) which constitutes an opportunity to spread the interest in time-domain astronomy. The telescope network is an heterogeneous set of already-existing observing facilities that operate coordinated as a single observatory. Within the network there are wide-field imagers that can observe large areas of the sky to search for optical counterparts, narrow-field instruments that do targeted searches within a predefined list of host-galaxy candidates, and larger telescopes that are devoted to characterization and follow-up of the identified counterparts. Here we present an overview of GRANDMA after the third observing run of the LIGO/VIRGO gravitational-wave observatories in 2019 − 2020 and its ongoing preparation for the forthcoming fourth observational campaign (O4). Additionally, we review the potential of GRANDMA for the discovery and follow-up of other types of astronomical transients.
The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is a wide-field telescope project focused on detecting optical counterparts to gravitational-wave sources. GOTO uses arrays of 40 cm unit telescopes (UTs) on a shared robotic mount, which scales to provide large fields of view in a cost-effective manner. A complete GOTO mount uses 8 unit telescopes to give an overall field of view of 40 square degrees, and can reach a depth of 20th magnitude in three minutes. The GOTO-4 prototype was inaugurated with 4 unit telescopes in 2017 on La Palma, and was upgraded to a full 8-telescope array in 2020. A second 8-UT mount will be installed on La Palma in early 2021, and another GOTO node with two more mount systems is planned for a southern site in Australia. When complete, each mount will be networked to form a robotic, dual-hemisphere observatory, which will survey the entire visible sky every few nights and enable rapid follow-up detections of transient sources.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.