WIDGET: Ultra Bright Optical Transients Search
Abstract
The WIDeField telescope for Gamma-ray burst Early Timing (WIDGET) is used for a fully automated, ultra-wide-field survey aimed at detecting the prompt optical emission associated with Gamma-ray Bursts (GRB). WIDGET surveys the HETE-2 and Swift/BAT pointing directions covering a total field of view of 62x62 degree every 10 seconds using an unfiltered system. This monitoring survey allows exploration of the optical emission before the gamma-ray trigger. At the same time, WIDGET is the quite unique instrument to explore ultra-bright optical transients with high time resolution. Combination with the MAXI survey, WIDGET has higher potential to make simultaneous discoveries of optical counterparts for high energy transients. We developed the serendipitous transient finding pipeline. We report the preliminary results.
- Publication:
-
The First Year of MAXI: Monitoring Variable X-ray Sources
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010fym..confP..55U