Related papers: Exploring the Optical Transient Sky with the Palom…
The search for fast optical transients, such as the expected electromagnetic counterparts to binary neutron star mergers, is riddled with false positives ranging from asteroids to stellar flares. While moving objects are readily rejected…
The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is systematically charting the optical transient and variable sky. A primary science driver of PTF is building a complete inventory of transients in the local Universe (distance less than 200 Mpc). Here,…
The Zwicky Transient Facility is a new robotic-observing program, in which a newly engineered 600-MP digital camera with a pioneeringly large field of view, 47~square degrees, will be installed into the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at…
We present results of the Sky2Night project: a systematic, unbiased search for fast optical transients with the Palomar Transient Factory. We have observed 407 deg$^2$ in $R$-band for 8 nights at a cadence of 2 hours. During the entire…
The rate of image acquisition in modern synoptic imaging surveys has already begun to outpace the feasibility of keeping astronomers in the real-time discovery and classification loop. Here we present the inner workings of a framework,…
Detecting transient light curves (e.g., transiting planets) requires high precision data, and thus it is important to effectively filter systematic trends affecting ground based wide field surveys. We apply an implementation of the Trend…
When planning a survey for astronomical transients, many factors such as cadence, filter choice, sky coverage, and depth of observations need to be balanced in order to optimize the scientific gain of the survey. Here we present a software…
Image subtraction is essential for transient detection in time-domain astronomy. The point spread function (PSF), photometric scaling, and sky background generally vary with time and across the field-of-view for imaging data taken with…
A fast-turnaround pipeline for realtime data reduction plays an essential role in discovering and permitting follow-up observations to young supernovae and fast-evolving transients in modern time-domain surveys. In this paper, we present…
We present a new approach for constructing optical phase-space-time-frequency tomography (OPSTFT) of an optical wave field. This tomography can be measured by using a novel four-window optical imaging system based on two local oscillator…
We describe the near real-time transient-source discovery engine for the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), currently in operations at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Caltech. We coin this system the…
The ultimate goal of the "Pi of the Sky" apparatus is observation of optical flashes of astronomical origin and other light sources variable on short timescales. We search mainly for optical emission of Gamma Ray Bursts, but also for…
One of the new frontiers of astronomical research is the exploration of time variability on the sky at different wavelengths and flux levels. We have carried out a pilot project using DPOSS data to study strong variables and transients, and…
The current data acquisition rate of astronomical transient surveys and the promise for significantly higher rates during in the next decade necessitate the development of novel approaches to analyze astronomical data sets and promptly…
In turbid media, scattering of light scrambles information of the incident beam and represents an obstacle to optical imaging. Noninvasive imaging through opaque layers is challenging for dynamic and wide-field objects due to unreliable…
The Rapid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) experiment is a spatially distributed system of autonomous robotic telescopes that is designed to monitor the sky for optical transients. The core of the system is composed of two telescope…
Current time domain facilities are finding several hundreds of transient astronomical events a year. The discovery rate is expected to increase in the future as soon as new surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Large…
The last couple of decades have seen an emergence of transient detection facilities in various avenues of time domain astronomy which has provided us with a rich dataset of transients. The rates of these transients have implications in star…
While optical and radio transient surveys have enjoyed a renaissance over the past decade, the dynamic infrared sky remains virtually unexplored. The infrared is a powerful tool for probing transient events in dusty regions that have high…
We describe briefly the Palomar-Quest (PQ) digital synoptic sky survey, including its parameters, data processing, status, and plans. Exploration of the time domain is now the central scientific and technological focus of the survey. To…