Final published version
Licence: CC BY
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The BlackGEM telescope array I: Overview
AU - Groot, Paul J.
AU - Bloemen, S.
AU - Vreeswijk, P.
AU - van Roestel, J.
AU - Jonker, P. G.
AU - Nelemans, G.
AU - Klein-Wolt, M.
AU - Poole, R. Le
AU - Pieterse, D.
AU - Rodenhuis, M.
AU - Boland, W.
AU - Haverkorn, M.
AU - Aerts, C.
AU - Bakker, R.
AU - Balster, H.
AU - Bekema, M.
AU - Dijkstra, E.
AU - Dolron, P.
AU - Elswijk, E.
AU - van Elteren, A.
AU - Engels, A.
AU - Fokker, M.
AU - de Haan, M.
AU - Hahn, F.
AU - Horst, R. ter
AU - Lesman, D.
AU - Kragt, J.
AU - Morren, J.
AU - Nillissen, H.
AU - Pessemier, W.
AU - de Rijke, A
AU - Raskin, G.
AU - Scheers, L. H. A.
AU - Schuil, M.
AU - Timmer, S. T.
AU - Arcavi, I.
AU - Blagorodnova, N.
AU - Biswas, S.
AU - Breton, R.
AU - Dawson, H.
AU - Dayal, P.
AU - Wet, S. De
AU - Duffy, C.
AU - Faris, S.
AU - Fausnaugh, M.
AU - Gal-Yam, A.
AU - Geier, S.
AU - Horesh, A.
AU - Johnston, C.
AU - Wijnands, R. A. D.
AU - Modiano, D.
PY - 2024/11/21
Y1 - 2024/11/21
N2 - 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
AB - 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
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.18923
U2 - 10.48550/ARXIV.2405.18923
DO - 10.48550/ARXIV.2405.18923
M3 - Journal article
VL - 136
JO - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
JF - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
SN - 0004-6280
IS - 11
M1 - 115003
ER -