The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)

TL;DR

GOTO is a cost-effective, wide-field robotic telescope array designed to detect optical counterparts to gravitational-wave events, with scalable units and rapid sky coverage capabilities.

Contribution

The paper introduces the GOTO project, detailing its scalable design, prototype development, and plans for a dual-hemisphere network to enhance gravitational-wave counterpart detection.

Findings

Successful deployment of the GOTO-4 prototype with 4 telescopes

Full 8-telescope array operational since 2020

Planned expansion to a dual-hemisphere network for comprehensive sky coverage

Abstract

The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is a wide-field telescope project focused on detecting optical counterparts to gravitational-wave sources. GOTO uses arrays of 40 cm unit telescopes (UTs) on a shared robotic mount, which scales to provide large fields of view in a cost-effective manner. A complete GOTO mount uses 8 unit telescopes to give an overall field of view of 40 square degrees, and can reach a depth of 20th magnitude in three minutes. The GOTO-4 prototype was inaugurated with 4 unit telescopes in 2017 on La Palma, and was upgraded to a full 8-telescope array in 2020. A second 8-UT mount will be installed on La Palma in early 2021, and another GOTO node with two more mount systems is planned for a southern site in Australia. When complete, each mount will be networked to form a robotic, dual-hemisphere observatory, which will survey the entire visible sky every few nights and enable rapid follow-up detections of transient sources.