Automated Supernova Discovery (Abstract)

Volume 43 number 2 (2015)

Richard S. Post

33 Fairbanks Road, Lexington, MA 02421; rspost@comcast.net

Abstract

(Abstract only) We are developing a system of robotic telescopes for automatic recognition of Supernovae as well as other transient events in collaboration with the Puckett Supernova Search Team. At the SAS2014 meeting, the discovery program, SNARE, was first described. Since then, it has been continuously improved to handle searches under a wide variety of atmospheric conditions. Currently, two telescopes are used to build a reference library while searching for possible supernovae (PSN) with a partial library. Since data are taken every night without clouds, we must deal with varying atmospheric and high background illumination from the moon. Software is configured to identify a PSN, then reshoot for verification with options to change the run plan to acquire photometric or spectrographic data. The telescopes are 24-inch CDK24, with Alta U230 cameras, one in CA and one in NM. Images and run plans are sent between sites so the CA telescope can search while photometry is done in NM. Our goal is to find bright PSNs with magnitude 17.5 or brighter, the limit of our planned spectroscopy. We present results from our first automated PSN discoveries and plans for PSN data acquisition.