The BlackGEM telescope array I: Overview
Abstract
The main science aim of the BlackGEM array is to detect optical counterparts to gravitational wave mergers. Additionally, the array will perform a set of synoptic surveys to detect Local Universe transients and short time-scale variability in stars and binaries, as well as a six-filter all-sky survey down to ~22nd mag. The BlackGEM Phase-I array consists of three optical wide-field unit telescopes. Each unit uses an f/5.5 modified Dall-Kirkham (Harmer-Wynne) design with a triplet corrector lens, and a 65cm primary mirror, coupled with a 110Mpix CCD detector, that provides an instantaneous field-of-view of 2.7~square degrees, sampled at 0.564\arcsec/pixel. The total field-of-view for the array is 8.2 square degrees. Each telescope is equipped with a six-slot filter wheel containing an optimised Sloan set (BG-u, BG-g, BG-r, BG-i, BG-z) and a wider-band 440-720 nm (BG-q) filter. Each unit telescope is independent from the others. Cloud-based data processing is done in real time, and includes a transient-detection routine as well as a full-source optimal-photometry module. BlackGEM has been installed at the ESO La Silla observatory as of October 2019. After a prolonged COVID-19 hiatus, science operations started on April 1, 2023 and will run for five years. Aside from its core scientific program, BlackGEM will give rise to a multitude of additional science cases in multi-colour time-domain astronomy, to the benefit of a variety of topics in astrophysics, such as infant supernovae, luminous red novae, asteroseismology of post-main-sequence objects, (ultracompact) binary stars, and the relation between gravitational wave counterparts and other classes of transients
Cite
@article{arxiv.2405.18923,
title = {The BlackGEM telescope array I: Overview},
author = {Paul J. Groot and S. Bloemen and P. Vreeswijk and J. van Roestel and P. G. Jonker and G. Nelemans and M. Klein-Wolt and R. Le Poole and D. Pieterse and M. Rodenhuis and W. Boland and M. Haverkorn and C. Aerts and R. Bakker and H. Balster and M. Bekema and E. Dijkstra and P. Dolron and E. Elswijk and A. van Elteren and A. Engels and M. Fokker and M. de Haan and F. Hahn and R. ter Horst and D. Lesman and J. Kragt and J. Morren and H. Nillissen and W. Pessemier and A de Rijke and G. Raskin and L. H. A. Scheers and M. Schuil and S. T. Timmer and L. Antunes Amaral and E. Arancibia-Rojas and I. Arcavi and N. Blagorodnova and S. Biswas and R. Breton and H. Dawson and P. Dayal and S. De Wet and C. Duffy and S. Faris and M. Fausnaugh and A. Gal-Yam and S. Geier and A. Horesh and C. Johnston and R. A. D. Wijnands and D. Modiano and G. Katusiime and C. Kelley and A. Kosakowski and T. Kupfer and G. Leloudas and O. Mogawana and J. Munday and J. A. Paice and F. Patat and I. Pelisoli and G. Ramsay and P. T. Ranaivomanana and R. Ruiz-Carmona and V. Schaffenroth and S. Scaringi and F. Stoppa and R. Street and H. Tranin and M. Uzundag and S. Valenti and M. Veresvarska and M. Vuckovic and H. C. I. Wichern and R. A. M. J. Wijers and E. Zimmerman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.18923},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
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