Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 138, 589-590

Catching the light curve of flaring GRBs: The opportunity offered by scanning telescopes

G.M. Beskin¹ - V. Plokhotnichenko¹ - C. Bartolini² - A. Guarnieri² - N. Masetti³ - A. Piccioni² - A. Shearer⁴ -
A. Golden⁴ - G. Auriemma⁵

Send offprint request: bartolini@astbo3.bo.astro.it

1 - Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russia
2 - Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Bologna, via Zamboni 33, I-40126 Bologna, Italy
3 - Istituto Te.S.R.E., CNR, Bologna, Italy
4 - University of Galway, Ireland
5 - Gruppo di Fisica Astroparticellare, Università della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

Received December 18, 1998; accepted July 1, 1999

Abstract:

We discuss the project of a wide field optical telescope equipped with panoramic detectors in order to catch an optical transient (OT) simultaneously with Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB). This telescope scans the gamma-ray telescope field of view, and with 1 m mirror for 1 s of integration time would detect OTs up to 16 mag; the probability of covering the GRB location in a field of 20$^{\circ}$ is 12%. The detection limit could be raised and the probability of catching OTs could be over 90% using a system of special telescopes with wide aperture and large collecting area.

Key words: telescopes, instrumentation: detectors, gamma-rays: bursts