The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance, and First Results

被引：981

作者：

Law, Nicholas M. ^{[1
]}

Kulkarni, Shrinivas R. ^{[1
]}

Dekany, Richard G. ^{[1
]}

Ofek, Eran O. ^{[1
]}

Quimby, Robert M. ^{[1
]}

Nugent, Peter E. ^{[2
]}

Surace, Jason ^{[3
]}

Grillmair, Carl C. ^{[3
]}

Bloom, Joshua S. ^{[4
]}

Kasliwal, Mansi M. ^{[1
]}

Bildsten, Lars ^{[5
,6
]}

Brown, Tim ^{[7
]}

Cenko, S. Bradley ^{[4
]}

Ciardi, David ^{[3
]}

Croner, Ernest ^{[1
]}

Djorgovski, S. George ^{[1
]}

van Eyken, Julian ^{[3
]}

Filippenko, Alexei V. ^{[4
]}

Fox, Derek B. ^{[8
]}

Gal-Yam, Avishay ^{[9
]}

Hale, David ^{[1
]}

Hamam, Nouhad ^{[3
]}

Helou, George ^{[3
]}

Henning, John ^{[1
]}

Howell, D. Andrew ^{[6
,7
]}

Jacobsen, Janet ^{[2
]}

Laher, Russ ^{[3
]}

Mattingly, Sean ^{[3
]}

McKenna, Dan ^{[1
]}

Pickles, Andrew ^{[7
]}

Poznanski, Dovi ^{[2
,4
]}

Rahmer, Gustavo ^{[1
]}

Rau, Arne ^{[1
,10
]}

Rosing, Wayne ^{[7
]}

Shara, Michael ^{[11
]}

Smith, Roger ^{[1
]}

Starr, Dan ^{[4
,7
]}

Sullivan, Mark ^{[12
]}

Velur, Viswa ^{[1
]}

Walters, Richard ^{[1
]}

Zolkower, Jeff ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] CALTECH, Caltech Opt Observ, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA

[2] Univ Calif Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

[3] CALTECH, Ctr Infrared Proc & Anal, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA

[4] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Astron, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

[5] Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Kavli Inst Theoret Phys, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA

[6] Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Dept Phys, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA

[7] Global Telescope Network, Las Cumbres Observ, Santa Barbara, CA 93117 USA

[8] Penn State Univ, Dept Astron & Astrophys, University Pk, PA 16802 USA

[9] Weizmann Inst Sci, Benoziyo Ctr Astrophys, IL-76100 Rehovot, Israel

[10] Max Planck Inst Extra Terr Phys, D-85748 Garching, Germany

[11] Amer Museum Nat Hist, Dept Astrophys, New York, NY 10024 USA

[12] Univ Oxford, Dept Phys, Oxford OX1 3RH, England

来源：

PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC | 2009年 / 121卷 / 886期

基金：

美国国家科学基金会;

关键词：

SKY SURVEY; CLASSIFICATION; SUPERNOVAE; PIPELINE;

D O I：

10.1086/648598

中图分类号：

P1 [天文学];

学科分类号：

0704 ;

摘要：

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a fully-automated, wide-field survey aimed at a systematic exploration of the optical transient sky. The transient survey is performed using a new 8.1 square degree camera installed on the 48 inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory; colors and light curves for detected transients are obtained with the automated Palomar 60 inch telescope. PTF uses 80% of the 1.2 m and 50% of the 1.5 m telescope time. With an exposure of 60 s the survey reaches a depth of m(g') approximate to 21:3 and m(R) approximate to 20:6 (5 sigma, median seeing). Four major experiments are planned for the five-year project:(1) a 5 day cadence supernova search; (2) a rapid transient search with cadences between 90 s and 1 day; (3) a search for eclipsing binaries and transiting planets in Orion; and (4) a 3 pi sr deep H-alpha survey. PTF provides automatic, real-time transient classification and follow-up, as well as a database including every source detected in each frame. This paper summarizes the PTF project, including several months of on-sky performance tests of the new survey camera, the observing plans, and the data reduction strategy. We conclude by detailing the first 51 PTF optical transient detections, found in commissioning data.

引用

页码：1395 / 1408

页数：14

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