Opening the dynamic infrared sky

• Published in: Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VII
• Main Authors: Soon, Jamie, Moore, Anna M., Kasliwal, Mansi M., Lau, Ryan M., De, Kishalay, Travouillon, Tony D., Jones, Mike I., Ofek, Eran, Smith, Roger, Terebizh, Valery, McKenna, Dan, Hale, David, Delacroix, Alexandre, Adams, Scott M., Jencson, Jacob E., Ashley, Michael, Burnham, Jill, Sokoloski, Jennifer L., Bland-Hawthorn, Joss, Freeman, Ken C., De Marco, Orsola, Cooke, Jeff, Bland, Philip, Ryder, Stuart, Soria, Roberto, Antoszewski, Jarek, Heger, Alexander, Spitler, Lee, Simcoe, Robert
• Other Authors: Marshall, Heather K., Spyromilio, Jason, Gilmozzi, Roberto
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) 2018
• Subjects: Gattini-IR; DREAMS; infrared; all-sky survey; Antarctica; polar regions; Siding Spring Observatory; Palomar Observatory; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312731

While optical and radio transient surveys have enjoyed a renaissance over the past decade, the dynamic infrared sky remains virtually unexplored from the ground. The infrared is a powerful tool for probing transient events in dusty regions that have high optical extinction, and for detecting the coolest of stars that are bright only at these wavelengths. The fundamental roadblocks in studying the infrared time-domain have been the overwhelmingly bright sky background (250 times brighter than optical) and the narrow field-of-view of infrared cameras (largest is VISTA at 0.6 sq deg). To address these challenges, Palomar Gattini-IR is currently under construction at Palomar Observatory and we propose a further low risk, economical, and agile instrument to be located at Siding Spring Observatory, as well as further instruments which will be located at the high polar regions to take advantage of the low thermal sky emission, particularly in the 2.5 micron region. © 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). This research is supported by an Australian National University Future Fund and an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. We acknowledge and greatly thank the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation and our partners for their generous support of these projects as well as Palomar Observatory and Siding Spring Observatory for the opportunity to deploy the instruments at these sites. Published - 107004D.pdf