Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2012-02-10
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Extended review of a talk given at IAU Symposium 285(Oxford 2011)
Scientific paper
This paper is an extended summary of the talk I gave at IAU Symposium "New Horizons in Time Domain Astronomy" (Oxford, 2011). I first review the history of transients (which is intimately related to the advent of wide-field telescopic imaging; I then summarize wide field imaging projects. The motivations that led to the design of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) followed by a summary of the astronomical returns from PTF. I review the lessons learnt from PTF. I conclude that, during this decade, optical transient searches will continue to flourish and may even accelerate as surveys at other wavelengths -- notably radio, UV and X-ray -- come on line. As a result, I venture to suggest that specialized searches for transients will continue -- even into the LSST era. I end the article by discussing the importance of follow-up telescopes for transient object studies -- a topical issue given that in the US the Portfolio Review is under away.
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