The Zadko Telescope: A Southern Hemisphere Telescope for Optical Transient Searches, Multi-Messenger Astronomy and Education

AbstractThe new 1 m f/4 fast-slew Zadko Telescope was installed in June 2008 about 70 km north of Perth, Western Australia. It is the only metre-class optical facility at this southern latitude between the east coast of Australia and South Africa, and can rapidly image optical transients at a longitude not monitored by other similar facilities. We report on first imaging tests of a pilot program of minor planet searches, and Target of Opportunity observations triggered by the Swift satellite. In 12 months, 6 gamma-ray burst afterglows were detected, with estimated magnitudes; two of them, GRB 090205 (z = 4.65) and GRB 090516 (z = 4.11), are among the most distant optical transients imaged by an Australian telescope. Many asteroids were observed in a systematic 3-month search. In September 2009, an automatic telescope control system was installed, which will be used to link the facility to a global robotic telescope network; future targets will include fast optical transients triggered by high-energy satellites, radio transient detections, and LIGO gravitational wave candidate events. We also outline the importance of the facility as a potential tool for education, training, and public outreach.

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The Optical Transient Search in the Bamberg Southern Sky Survey: Preliminary Results

Acta Polytechnica ◽

10.14311/1502 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

Author(s):

R. Hudec ◽

F. Kopel ◽

P. Krapp ◽

U. Heber ◽

W. Cayé

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Gamma Ray ◽

Large Fraction ◽

Gamma Ray Bursts ◽

Extended Study ◽

Maximum Light ◽

Sky Survey ◽

Optical Transients ◽

Optical Surveys ◽

Optical Transient

A large fraction of gamma-ray bursts temporarily emit optical light, i.e. optical afterglows and optical transients. So far, optical transients have only been detected after related gamma-ray satellite detection. However, taking into account their optical magnitudes at maximum light, these objects should be detectable in various historical and recent optical surveys, including the photographic sky patrol. Here we report on an extended study based on blink-comparison of 5004 Bamberg Observatory Southern Sky Patrol Plates performed within a student high school project (Jugend Forscht).

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Simulations and Modeling of Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transients and Supernova Impostors

Galaxies ◽

10.3390/galaxies6030082 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 82 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Amit Kashi

Keyword(s):

Central Star ◽

High Energy ◽

Gravitational Energy ◽

High Energy Part ◽

Classical Novae ◽

Energy Part ◽

Optical Transients ◽

Hydrodynamical Simulations ◽

Simulations And Modeling ◽

Optical Transient

More luminous than classical novae, but less luminous than supernovae, lies the exotic stellar eruptions known as Intermediate luminosity optical transients (ILOTs). They are divided into a number of sub-groups depending on the erupting progenitor and the properties of the eruption. A large part of the ILOTs is positioned on the slanted Optical Transient Stripe (OTS) in the Energy-Time Diagram (ETD) that shows their total energy vs. duration of their eruption. We describe the different kinds of ILOTs that populate the OTS and other parts of the ETD. The high energy part of the OTS hosts the supernova impostors—giant eruptions (GE) of very massive stars. We show the results of the 3D hydrodynamical simulations of GEs that expose the mechanism behind these GEs and present new models for recent ILOTs. We discuss the connection between different kinds of ILOTs and suggest that they have a common energy source—gravitational energy released by mass transfer. We emphasize similarities between Planetary Nebulae (PNe) and ILOTs, and suggest that some PNe were formed in an ILOT event. Therefore, simulations used for GEs can be adapted for PNe, and used to learn about the influence of the ILOT events on the central star of the planetary nebula.

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THE ZADKO TELESCOPE RESULTS: TEN YEARS OF SCIENCE

Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica Serie de Conferencias ◽

10.22201/ia.14052059p.2021.53.24 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 124-126

Author(s):

B. Gendre ◽

D. Coward ◽

J. Moore ◽

A. Burrell ◽

A. Klotz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Western Australia ◽

East Coast ◽

Research Facility ◽

Southern Latitude ◽

Optical Transients

The 1.0 meter f/4 fast-slew Zadko telescope is located in Western Australia, approximately seventy kilometers north of Perth at Yeal in the Shire of Gingin in a dedicated "low-luminosity" area. It is the only meter class optical research facility at this southern latitude between the east coast of Australia and South Africa and can rapidly image optical transients at a longitude not monitored by other similar facilities. We review here the main results achieved during the last decade and give some points toward the goals set for future years. Finally we discuss the modifications and improvements we had to perform in the facility to reach these new goals.

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Astronomical Image Compression Techniques Based on ACC and KLT Coder

Acta Polytechnica ◽

10.14311/1336 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

Author(s):

J. Schindler ◽

P. Páta ◽

M. Klíma ◽

K. Fliegel

Keyword(s):

Gamma Ray ◽

Image Data ◽

Point Of View ◽

Uniform Quantization ◽

Reduction Methods ◽

Testing Signal ◽

Astronomical Images ◽

Karhunen Loeve Transform ◽

Robotic Telescope ◽

Optical Transient

This paper deals with a compression of image data in applications in astronomy. Astronomical images have typical specific properties — high grayscale bit depth, size, noise occurrence and special processing algorithms. They belong to the class of scientific images. Their processing and compression is quite different from the classical approach of multimedia image processing. The database of images from BOOTES (Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System) has been chosen as a source of the testing signal. BOOTES is a Czech-Spanish robotic telescope for observing AGN (active galactic nuclei) and the optical transient of GRB (gamma ray bursts) searching. This paper discusses an approach based on an analysis of statistical properties of image data. A comparison of two irrelevancy reduction methods is presented from a scientific (astrometric and photometric) point of view. The first method is based on a statistical approach, using the Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT) with uniform quantization in the spectral domain. The second technique is derived from wavelet decomposition with adaptive selection of used prediction coefficients. Finally, the comparison of three redundancy reduction methods is discussed. Multimedia format JPEG2000 and HCOMPRESS, designed especially for astronomical images, are compared with the new Astronomical Context Coder (ACC) coder based on adaptive median regression.

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Simulations and Modeling of Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transients and Supernova Impostors

10.20944/preprints201806.0378.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Amit Kashi

Keyword(s):

High Energy ◽

Gravitational Energy ◽

Time Diagram ◽

High Energy Part ◽

Classical Novae ◽

Energy Part ◽

Optical Transients ◽

Hydrodynamical Simulations ◽

Simulations And Modeling ◽

Optical Transient

Intermediate-luminosity-optical-transients (ILOTs) are stellar outbursts with luminosity between those of classical novae and supernovae. They are divided into a number of sub-groups depending on the erupting progenitor and the properties of the eruption. Many of the ILOTs sit on the slanted Optical Transient Stripe (OTS) in the Energy-Time Diagram (ETD) that shows their total energy vs. duration of their eruption. We describe the different kinds of ILOTs that populate the OTS and other parts of the ETD. We also stand on similarities between Planetary Nebulae (PN) to ILOTs, and suggest that some PNe were formed in an ILOT event. The high energy part of the OTS is reserved to the supernova impostors -- giant eruption of very massive stars. We show results of 3D hydrodynamical simulations of supernova impostors that expose the mechanism behind these giant eruptions, and present new models for recent ILOTs. We stand on the connection between different kinds of ILOTs, and suggest that they are powered by a similar source of energy -- gravitational energy released by mass transfer.

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MASTER INVESTIGATION OF ANTARES AND ICECUBE ALERTS

Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica Serie de Conferencias ◽

10.22201/ia.14052059p.2019.51.15 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 51 ◽

pp. 89-95 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

O. A. Gress ◽

V. M. Lipunov ◽

D. Dornic ◽

E. S. Gorbovskoy ◽

V. G. Kornilov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Energy ◽

Optical Observation ◽

Space And Time ◽

Telescopic System ◽

Optical Transients ◽

High Energy Neutrinos ◽

Robotic Telescope ◽

The Universe

This paper presents the first investigation results of possible coincidences of optical transients in the MASTER global robotic telescope net database with the localization regions of VHE and UHE neutrino alert events from ANTARES and IceCube observatories. MASTER is the first robotic telescopic system in Russia, dedicated to optical observation and registration of the most energetic and fastest explosive processes in the Universe. The goal is a deeper and more thorough study of space and time coincidences of the MASTER optical transients and high energy neutrinos.

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From TORTORA to MegaTORTORA—Results and Prospects of Search for Fast Optical Transients

Advances in Astronomy ◽

10.1155/2010/171569 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2010 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Grigory Beskin ◽

Sergey Bondar ◽

Sergey Karpov ◽

Vladimir Plokhotnichenko ◽

Adriano Guarnieri ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Resolution ◽

Field Of View ◽

High Time ◽

High Time Resolution ◽

Wide Field ◽

Optical Transients ◽

Photometric Investigation ◽

Robotic Telescope ◽

Fine Time ◽

Optical Transient

To study short stochastic optical flares of different objects (GRBs, SNs, etc.) of unknown localizations as well as NEOs it is necessary to monitor large regions of sky with high-time resolution. We developed a system consisting of widefield camera with field of view of 400–600 sq.deg. which uses TV-CCD with 0.13 s temporal resolution to record and classify optical transients, and a fast robotic telescope aimed to perform their spectroscopic and photometric investigation just after detection. Such two-telescope complex, combining wide-field camera TORTORA and robotic telescope REM, operated from May 2006 at La Silla ESO observatory. Some results of its operation, including first high time resolution study of optical transient accompanying GRB and discovery of its fine time structure, are presented. Also, prospects for improving the efficiency of such observations are given, and a project of a next generation wide field monitoring system, the MegaTORTORA, is described.

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