Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System

The Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System, or LOTIS, is an automated telescope designed to slew very rapidly to the location of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), to enable the simultaneous measurement of optical counterparts. Since GRBs can occur anywhere in the sky, are often poorly localized, and fade very quickly, this implies very rapid slewing (less than 10 sec) and a wide field of view (greater than 15 degrees). To achieve the needed response time, LOTIS was fully automated and connected via Internet socket to the Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network. This network analyzes telemetry from satellite such as HETE-2 and Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and delivers GRB coordinate information in real-time.. The optics were built from 4 commercial tele-photo lenses with custom 2048 X 2048 CCD cameras, and could view a 17.6 X 17.6 degree field.

LOTIS started routine operation in October of 1996, until it was replaced by Super-LOTIS. In the idle time between GRB triggers, LOTIS systematically surveyed the entire available sky every night for new optical transients.

References

Park, H.S. and Ables, E. and Barthelmy, S.D. and Bionta, R.M. and Ott, L.L. and Parker, E.L. and Williams, G.G. (1998). "Instrumentation of LOTIS--Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System: a fully automated wide-field-of-view telescope system searching for simultaneous optical counterparts of gamma-ray bursts". Proceedings of SPIE. Vol. 3355. p. 658. doi:10.1117/12.316790. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)