P61-507: The local transient Universe

The full scans of the entire night sky by professional transient surveys ensure a constantly improving discovery rate of young, bright transients within an increasingly large volume of the local Universe. Our long-term observational programme NUTS2 aims to study supernovae, tidal disruption events, and other astrophysical transients, often discovered within hours to days after explosion. NOT observations will play a fundamental role in addressing a whole host of science work packages, e.g.: (i) Type Ia supernova progenitors and their explosion physics, (ii) the progenitors and rates of core-collapse supernovae, (iii) nuclear transients, and (iv) extreme supernovae.

ToO + Soft ToO triggers

The OB generator will be used to request all ToO observations. Scripts to perform all the requested operations will be automatically created and placed in the directory ~/scripts/61-507/. An email will be sent automatically to the observer, which contains all the information about the requested observations, the names and locations of the scripts, instructions for observing and comments from the creator of the trigger.

To summarise:

Go to the directory
  cd ~/scripts/61-507
List the available scripts
  ls -lrt

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

The information below is only given as additional support.

Fixed half-nights service observations

In order to queue the observations, enter the OB generator and click on the Queue it! button.
Then compile the scripts manually, either through the compile buttons in the OB generator or from within the OB queue.

Scripts are placed in the directory ~/scripts/61-507/ as above for ToO/Soft ToO.

When an OB is queued, an e-mail will be sent automatically to the observer, which contains all the information about the requested observations, the names and locations of the scripts, instructions for observing and comments from the creator of the trigger.

General information on the ALFOSC spectroscopy and photometry:

• Possible required setup:
• Filters: ugriz, (UBVRI)
• Grisms: #4, #7, #8, #18, #19, #20
• Slits: 0.75", 1.0", 1.3"


• If the seeing is better than ~1.2", the 1.0" slit should be used, otherwise the 1.3" one.


• Take 3 imaging flat fields in the required broadband filters using twilight sky, either in the evening or in the morning, using the alfosc.easyflat script.


• The exposure time of the spectrum depends on the magnitude of the target:
• If V < 17 mag the on-source exposure time is 1 x 900 sec
• If V = 17-18 mag the on-source exposure time is 1 x 1800 sec
• If V = 18-19 mag the on-source exposure time is 1 x 2400 sec
• If V > 19 mag the on-source exposure time is 1 x 3600 sec


• Standards will usually be selected by the triggering individual and OB scripts for observing these will also be present in ~/scripts/59-507. Typically one of the following spectroscopic standards is used (sorted in the order of preference):



ING ID	Name	RA (J2000.0)	DEC (J2000.0)	Exp. time	FC
SP1036+433	Feige 34	10:39:36.7	+43:06:10.1	100 sec	Feige34.gif
SP1234+254	Feige 66	12:37:23.6	+25:04:00.3	50 sec	Feige66.gif
SP0501+527	G191B2B	05:05:30.6	+52:49:56.0	120 sec	G191B2B.gif
SP1550+330	BD+33 2642	15:51:59.9	+32:56:53.0	60 sec	BD+33.2642.gif
SP2148+286	BD+28 4211	21:51:11.1	+28:51:52.0	60 sec	BD+28.4211.gif




• No blocking filter should be used in any of the spectroscopic observations.


• The ALFOSC specific Cookbook can be accessed here.

General information on the NOTCam photometry:

The OB generator will be used to prepare all observations, and the information below is only for orientation.

• Possible required setup:
• Filters: JHKs
• Camera: WF


• Take 2 sets (bright and faint with the same exposure time) of 8 imaging flat fields in the required broadband filters using twilight sky, either in the evening or in the morning, using the notcam.skyflat script.


• Please, make sure that the target counts (including sky background) remain linear, i.e. <25000 counts – check & adjust exposure times if necessary. This is particularly important in the Ks-band.


• Generally the targets are expected to be distant enough that off-source dithering for background subtraction will not be required and that the on-source exposures can be used also as sky frames. By default, the observing scripts are based on the 9point script which carries out a 9 point dither (3x3 grid) observation. However, if separate sky frames are required a beamswitch script will be used.


• The NOTCam specific Cookbook can be accessed here.

Should any of the observations have been carried out using the OB system, you will find additional information HERE