Recent GRBs Observed with the 1.23 m CAHA Telescope and the Status of Its Upgrade

Javier Gorosabel,Víctor Terrón,Matilde Fernández,Sergey Guziy,Nuria Huélamo,José Luis Ortiz,Nicolás Morales,Sebastián Castillo-Carrión,Petr Kubánek,Stefano Mottola,Uri Carsenty,Martin Jelínek,Ronan Cunniffe,Antonio De Ugarte Postigo,Alberto J Castro-Tirado

doi:10.1155/2010/701534

Abstract

We report on optical observations of Gamma‐Ray Bursts (GRBs) followed up by our collaboration with the 1.23 m telescope located at the Calar Alto observatory. The 1.23 m telescope is an old facility, currently undergoing upgrades to enable fully autonomous response to GRB alerts. We discuss the current status of the control system upgrade of the 1.23 m telescope. The upgrade is being done by our group based on the Remote Telescope System, 2nd Version (RTS2), which controls the available instruments and interacts with the EPICS database of Calar Alto. (Our group is called ARAE (Robotic Astronomy & High‐Energy Astrophysics) and is based on members of IAA (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía). Currently the ARAE group is responsible to develop the BOOTES network of robotic telescopes (Jelínek et al. 2009).) Currently the telescope can run fully autonomously or under observer supervision using RTS2. The fast reaction response mode for GRB reaction (typically with response times below 3 minutes from the GRB onset) still needs some development and testing. The telescope is usually operated in legacy interactive mode, with periods of supervised autonomous runs under RTS2. We show the preliminary results of several GRBs followed up with observer intervention during the testing phase of the 1.23 m control software upgrade.

Highlights

The 1.23 m telescope is at the German-Spanish observatory of Calar Alto (CAHA) in the province of Almeria, Southeast of Spain
We report on optical observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) followed up by our collaboration with the 1.23 m telescope located at the Calar Alto observatory
It allows the observer to control the instruments through graphical user interface (GUI) programs running on two main observatory computers—one for the telescope control and the other for the camera

Summary

Introduction

The 1.23 m telescope is at the German-Spanish observatory of Calar Alto (CAHA) in the province of Almeria, Southeast of Spain. We report on optical observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) followed up by our collaboration with the 1.23 m telescope located at the Calar Alto observatory. The 1.23 m telescope is an old facility, currently undergoing upgrades to enable fully autonomous response to GRB alerts.

Results

Conclusion