Kiso Supernova Survey (KISS): Survey Strategy

TL;DR

The Kiso Supernova Survey (KISS) employs high-cadence, wide-field optical observations to detect early supernova shock breakouts, aiming to provide insights into progenitor stars through rapid, multi-band photometry.

Contribution

This paper introduces the survey strategy, observational setup, and data reduction methods of KISS, highlighting its focus on capturing early supernova light curves for the first time.

Findings

Estimated detection of about 1 shock breakout during 3 years

Successful implementation of high-cadence, wide-field survey strategy

Discovery of several supernovae reported by CBET

Abstract

The Kiso Supernova Survey (KISS) is a high-cadence optical wide-field supernova (SN) survey. The primary goal of the survey is to catch the very early light of a SN, during the shock breakout phase. Detection of SN shock breakouts combined with multi-band photometry obtained with other facilities would provide detailed physical information on the progenitor stars of SNe. The survey is performed using a 2.2x2.2 deg field-of-view instrument on the 1.05-m Kiso Schmidt telescope, the Kiso Wide Field Camera (KWFC). We take a three-minute exposure in g-band once every hour in our survey, reaching magnitude g~20-21. About 100 nights of telescope time per year have been spent on the survey since April 2012. The number of the shock breakout detections is estimated to be of order of 1 during our 3-year project. This paper summarizes the KISS project including the KWFC observing setup, the survey strategy, the data reduction system, and CBET-reported SNe discovered so far by KISS.