Search
Text Size:
Smaller Text Normal Text Larger Text

Facebook page

Twitter profile

YouTube channel

P62-507: The Young Supernova Experiment

PI: Charlotte Angus

Summary:

This program aims to spectroscopically characterise a new exotic class of transients which are rapidly evolving. Though these events exhibit a broad range of colours and host environments, they ALL evolve on extremely short timescales of just a few days. Their short windows of observability mean that they have previously proven extremely difficult to identify and spectroscopically observe. Obtaining spectroscopic information for these events is essential for us to both determine their nature and to exploit the physical information which may be gained from their spectra. This programme uses our new high cadence, multiband survey, the Young Supernova Experiment (YSE), to identify these events within <24hrs of them appearing on sky, so that we may obtain spectra whilst they are still bright.

ToO triggers

All observations will be spectroscopic using ALFOSC with one grism (we will chose either grism 4 or grism 10 depending upon the colour of the transient) and a 1" slit. Exposure times will depend upon the transient brightness. Including overheads of ~15 minutes, the maximum OB length (i.e. for our faintest targets) will be 1.5 hours. We anticipate triggering up to 15 times during P62 (with a maximum of 5 hard triggers). Remaining triggers will be executed within NOT service mode/technical nights.

Calibrations:

Alfosc-calibs ,
standard bias and flats obtained with the same grism/slit setup as the science frames.

Observing conditions:

As this is a ToO we do not have strict constraints on the observing conditions and the observations can be executed in any lunar phase. In case of a specific observing constraints (e.g. a seeing limit for high airmass objects) for a particular observation, we will communicate this in the trigger email and the OB constraints.

Observing instructions:

The OB group to be observed on any night will appear in the Queue as a time-critical group. In a sequencer window type cd ~/scripts/62-507/ In this directory you will find the OB compiled script for each night, Run the script within the requested UT window. if the script is not available, please compile it from the OB Queue. In the OB Queue the OB groups to be observed on the current date will be high-lighted with an orange colour. Execute the OB. The OB will point the telescope, obtain an acquisition image and the requested science frames. Please check you can recognise the field by comparing it with the Finding Chart. It will be appreciated if you check that the target (marked in the finding Chart) is not saturated in the observations. If so, please repeat by reducing the exposure time accordingly.
The PI will send the target and observing information when this ToO is triggered.
To summarise:

Go to the directory
  cd ~/scripts/62-507
List the available scripts
  ls -lrt

and execute the OB generated scripts requested in the trigger email.

P62 tracking P63 tracking P64 tracking

Invalid Proposal