The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)

: Dyer Martin J., Ackley Kendall, Lyman Joe, Ulaczyk Krzysztof, Steeghs Danny, Galloway Duncan K., Dhillon Vik S, O'Brien Paul, Ramsay Gavin, Noysena Kanthanakorn, Kotak Rubina, Breton Rene, Nuttall Laura, Pallé Enric, Pollacco Don

: Heather K. Marshall, Jason Spyromilio, Tomonori Usuda

: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation

Publisher: SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING, PO BOX 10, BELLINGHAM, WA 98227-0010 USA

: 2022

Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering

: Proceedings of SPIE: Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX

GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE TELESCOPES IX

: PROC SPIE

: 121821Y

: Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering

: 12182

: 121821Y

: 8

: 0277-786X

: 1996-756X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629369

: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629369

The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is a wide-field telescope project focused on detecting optical counterparts to gravitational-wave sources. Each GOTO robotic mount holds eight 40 cm telescopes, giving an overall field of view of 40 square degrees. As of 2022 the first two GOTO mounts have been commissioned at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Canary Islands, and construction of the second node with two additional 8-telescope mounts has begin at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. Once fully operational each GOTO mount will be networked to form a robotic, multi-site observatory, which will survey the entire visible sky every two nights and enable rapid follow-up detections of transient sources.