Project

General

Wiki

Profile

GRANDMA telescopes for GRB campaign !

This is some guidelines for triggering GRANDMA telescopes and their partners during a GRB follow-up campaign

Follow-up advocate role

What does "in charge of triggering and operating GRANDMA" mean? (June 2025)

  • The FA is in charge of:

    • Evaluating if the GRB is interesting or not and which telescopes can be triggered. This is based on their usage frequency and capabilities (see table below).
    • Triggering the appropriate telescopes.
    • Requesting that online measurements (not just images in owncloud) are uploaded to Skyportal by the observational(telescope) teams
    • Checking results based only on GCN and internal measurements of GRANDMA in Skyportal (is it fading ?)
    • Not analyzing images themselves — image analysis is done by the observer or the team, or in very particular cases, by the FA's team or DAG.

  • Only measurements present in Skyportal are considered valid, not just observations. We expect images to be analyzed and the the measurements to be uploaded 24 hours post-request for the standard case. A professional image uploaded to Owncloud without an associated measurement in Skyportal is not validated.

More specifically,

  • The role of the FA is not just to request observations (on Slack), but to:
    • Monitor the optical counterpart localization and its localization uncertainty (sometimes we have only a localization from gamma-ray or X-ray), and refresh this localization in SP
    • Annotate Skyportal (Which type of GRB, Group management, Feedback from observational teams, and analysis)
    • Provide, Type of source, Localization, filter, exposure, expected magnitude, AND specific time ranges of observations (e.g, within a day? within 6h? etc.)
    • Organize revisits (do not ask only one observation)
    • Monitor the expected fading rate and check consistency

When triggering an observation to an observational team, the FA must provide:

  1. The most up-to-date localization of the GRB afterglow (in arsec uncertainties) OR specifically state that the localization is not precise
  2. The most up-to-date expected limiting magnitude, based on the current light curve and measurements in Skyportal. For this, the FA should upload all GCN measurements (as they are recieved) to Skyportal and monitor how the transient is fading.
  3. The filters to request:
    • Default: r or Johnson R.
    • For large campaigns: consider adding I,i and G,g.
  4. (Encouraged) The number of images and exposure time to request—especially when triggering via the Skyportal platform (e.g, TRT, ...).

Usage Levels of Telescopes

The telescopes in GRANDMA are operating in various ways and are to be solicited by the FAs differently based on the observing scenario.

Code Usage Frequency Notes
VF Very Frequent (~3h/day) Fully integrated, can be triggered often
O Occasional (~1/month) Use judiciously
R Rare (<1/3 months) Reserve for high-interest events
VR Very Rare (<1/6 months) Use only for high-priority cases
nOP Not Operational Currently inactive or unavailable

Telescope teams

TAROT team: A. Klotz (IRAP), S. Antier (OCA/IJCLAB), Q. André, A. Dupin, C. Limonta (OCA)

AbAO Team: V. Aivazyan (AbAO), R. Inasaridze (AbAO), N. Kochiashvili (AbAO)

KAO Team: M. Abdelkareem (NRIAG), Y. Hendy (NRIAG), A. Takey (NRIAG)

FRAM-Auger Team: M. Jelínek (ASU), S. Karpov (FZU), M. Mašek (FZU)

AST3-3 and YAHPT Team: J. Chen, A.V. Filippenko, J.J. Geng, Y.L. Hua, X.Y. Li, T.R. Sun, W. Zheng

OHP/MISTRAL Team: C. Adami, E. Bernaud, S. Boissier, C. Dubois, W. Mercier, A. Saccardi (GEPI)

NAO Team: B.M. Mihov (NAO), L. Slavcheva-Mihova (NAO)

Skynet Team: D. Dutton (UNC), D. Reichart (UNC), D. Schlekat (UNC)

OST: R. Hainic, F. Rünger (UnP)

A. Prompt Response - Automatic / Semi-Automatic Triggering

Asia Time Zone Semi-automatic

Telescope Aperture Filters Nominal upper limit Trigger Type Observational Rate Contact / Notes
TAROT/TNC (NC) 0.18m no filter 17 max Automatic Not Operational Will be operational in July 2025, FA contact: A. Klotz (aklotz@irap.omp.eu)
TAROT/TRE (La Réunion) 0.2m no filter 19 max Automatic Very Frequent Slack @Sarah to check if images are taken and online analysis for triggering. Images are taken automatically for GRB/SWIFT/Fermi, but the current status is not reported in Skyportal (thus, contact Sarah). For SVOM events, you can trigger via Skyportal, for example in 10x180s in 'Clear' in the first hour (based on the gamma-ray or x-ray localisation), but normally it is done automatically by Skyportal itself (but needs some checks)
Les Makes-60 0.6m gr (TBC) 20 mag in 6x120s and 21-21.5 in 30 min Semi-auto Occasional Email for observations: frederic.vachier@obspm.fr and A. Klotz (aklotz@irap.omp.eu, available from 18h to 22h for prompt observations, images: ask A. Klotz to upload, analysis by DAG.
TRT/GAO (China) 0.8m TBC TBC Semi-auto Very Rare Trigger via Skyportal by FA; ask Aom (manasanun_t@cmu.ac.th) by email or Slack (@Aom), check in Skyportal the measurements or recontact Aom to upload results. You can perform revisits on the telescopes as it is reaching a good sensitivity. Sometimes you are asking for a certain number of images, but you do not have the time allocation
TRT/SBO (Australia) 0.8m Johnson 20 mag in B and I in 30 min, 21.8 mag in R and V in 30 min Semi-auto Frequent Same Process as TRT/GAO

Europe Time Zone Semi-automatic

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Trigger Type Observational Rate Contact / Notes
FRAM/CTA-N (La Palma) 0.25m RI 17 in a couple of min Automatic Very Frequent GRB/Swift program is automatic (requires agreement if we have some publication planned) --> Contact @Mašek on Slack if interested. For SVOM, contact @Sergey Karpov or @Mašek via Slack (no need to specify exposure details). Check with @Mašek if results are uploaded to Skyportal, as the analysis is performed by Martin
TAROT/TCA (France) 0.25m gri 19 in 30 min, 16-17 for 60s Automatic Very Frequent Follow same instructions as TAROT/TRE.
OHP/IRiS (France) 0.5m ugriz 19 mag in couple of min Semi-Automatic Not operational for GRANDMA yet Possible to trigger but no analysis will be performed (images in raw mode). To trigger, ask via Mattermost S. Basa (https://mattermost.osupytheas.fr). Contacts: S. Basa, Jean-Grégoire Ducoin, Francesco Magnani, Sarah Antier, Dahlia Akl (they have access and can act as intermediaries), or contact Stéphane Basa directly (stephane.basa@lam.fr) @stéphanebasa.
Abastumani-T150 (Georgia) 1.5m ugriz 21 mag 10 min, 22.5 in 1 Semi-auto but currently manual Rare Request to Kochiashvili Nino for observations, and check on measurements reports by Nino on SP, the automatic system is not operational

America Time Zone

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Trigger Type Observational Rate Contact / Notes
FRAM/Auger (Argentina) 0.3m Clear, RI 17 mag nominally Automatic Very Frequent Same process as FRAM/CTA-N.
TAROT/TCH (Chile) 0.25m gri g, r, i: < 180s (18–19 mag), > 30 min (20 mag) Automatic (fastest) Very Frequent Same process as TRT/GAO.
VIRT (USA) 0.5m ugriz 19 mag in 10 min (tentative) Automatic? Occasional Should be automatic once Bruce has repaired (expected September 2025). Current process: contact @Priya Gokuldass via Slack or email (priyadass.94@gmail.com) or Bruce Gendre (bruce.gendre@uvi.edu) for triggering. Do not hesitate to perform revisits. The team requests to be notified for prompt scheduling observations between 10h UTC and 04h UTC.
TRT/SRO (USA) 0.8m RV 21 mag in R and V in 50 min Semi-auto Frequent Same process as TRT/GAO.
TRT/CTO (Chile) 0.8m griBVR 14x600s 22.1 in r-band, 11x300s 22.3 in V Semi-auto Frequent Same process as TRT/GAO. A new telescope that joined the network

B. Regular Telescopes (by contact for observations via FAs)

Asia Time Zone

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Observational rate Contact / Notes
TNT (China) 0.8m BVRI 20 Occasional WeChat via "Kilonova catcher & GRB catcher project" / or if you don't have access to wechat, email Xiaofeng Wang , the telescope is not automatic and some night are not allocated to TSU's group. Trigger this team only is a well localized optical counterpart is found and the first night post T0, since the obs are quite shallow. It is not necessary to trigger this telescope for SVOM GRBs as the time of the telescope is allocated directly to the SVOM team for it. Provinding the up to date upper limit is enough for this team. Don't hesitate to ask all colors possible
SHAO/T60 (Azerbaijan) 0.6m UBVRI 19 max, 18 mag in 10 min Very Rare The telescope is shared by multiple groups. The GRANDMA team is not necessary at the site of the telescope. The best way of contact is either Vidadi Zumrud or Agayeva Shabnam via slack, either Nariman Ismayilov ismailovnshao@gmail.com by email, the stacking is not necessarily done by the team but the team can provide results via skyportal. The FA can ask sistematically observations to the team, if the source is quite bright (first night)
UBAI-NT/ST (Uzbekistan) 0.6m UBVRI up to 20 mag in 10 min in R band Frequent Periodic closure at Winter (from XX to XX), 45 min everynight for GRANDMA so you can ask systematically via slack Rajabov Yodgorbek and Burkhonov Otabek Burkhonov. There is a period when the observatory is closed
Abastumani-T70 (Georgia) 0.7m UBVR 10 min in R around 20 and 21.5 mag in 90 min Frequent Ask Kochiashvili Nino from Slack or by email nino.kochiashvili@iliauni.edu.ge, the I filter is not working. The team can adjust observations based on upper limit asked, and the team will report directly the measurements in Skyportal (no need to analyse the data)
GMG-2m (China) 2.0m UBVR/griz 21.5 max (with spectra 19 mag) Occasional Contact Jirong Mao jirongmao@mail.ynao.ac.cn contact by chat or by email on GRB/Swift/Fermi (but not for SVOM, it is under the SVOM time). Sometimes the data won't be necesarly shared with GRANDMA, but it is good to systematically asking and the revisits
Xinglong-2.16 (China) 2.16m UBVR/griz ? 20.5 max (with spectra 18 mag) Rare Detection only !!, email Xiaofeng Wang wang_xf@tsinghua.edu.cn, the telescope is not automatic and some night are not allocated to TSU's group. You can ask multiple colors. The data will be in charge by the GRANDMA/DAG or ask Haowei Peng for reducting the data and upload it in Skyportal

Europe Time Zone

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Frequency Contact / Notes
ASO (Morocco) 50cm BGRI 21.5 in R max Frequent to Very Frequent Whats App Ali (+212 661141372) or aziz5200@live.com, the telescope is semi-automatic run by a prefessional amateur, the FA should provide strict guidance with exposure, filter, and number of images, position. Aziz does not have access to skyportal. Maybe a standard is 20x180s in R and I and propose revisits
HAO1 (Morocco) 30cm BGRI 19.5 mag Frequent to Very Frequent Same as ASO
KAO (Europe) 2m griz 21.5/22.0 mag in r (45 min), Frequent Contact Mona or Eslam via Slack. The team knows how to reduce the data and imported in Skyportal, if no response, contact Ali Takey ali.takey@nriag.sci.eg
Pic du Midi (France) 1m gri + IR 22.5 Rare Late time obs (not request obs in advanced for measurements in couple of days). The team is formally in GRANDMA. The team is not present on site, the level of success rate is quite low. Once observations are performed, the team is awake during the night. For these reasons, the observations must be highly valuable (as for short GRBs) or part of a publications (late time). So the process is that the WC coordiator contacts Colas Francois Francois.Colas@obspm.fr, to understand if there is someone at the site to observe the target. Do not wait too long, as sometimes a trip to Pic du Midi is planed for the coming days, so the process would be better to ask when the source is still bright and interesting, if someone plan to be on site in the coming days and propose different epoch of observations as C2PU (a road map for a week). The data are compiled by A. Klotz and posted in owncloud. The DAG can performed its analysis. A GCN can be sent but not necessary

America Time Zone

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Frequency Contact / Notes
OPD (Brazil) 0.6m and 1.6m RV ? 22 mag in 1h for sure Occasional Please contact WAGNER CORRADI by e-mail (wbcorradi@lna.br) or slack (@Wagner Corradi). @nelio sasaki and is also a good contact for observations. The OPD team will try to accommodate your observations depending on their access to the telescope, so it is very better to ask for long term observations WHEN it is Needed. Preferably if it is a confirmed candidate. You can ask for revisits anytime, but prefer the targets you have received previous results of detection from the team. The team is currently exercising on the analysis, the DAG must finish their training so that they can upload their results directly in skyportal".
SOAR (4m) 4m griz 23.5 Occasional Please contact Felipe Navarete by e-mail (fnavarete@lna.br) with copy to Luciano Fraga (lfraga@lna.br) and Ted Leandro (leandro.dealmeida@noirlab.edu). Access to SOAR is restricted and the best epochs correspond to 1 or 2 days around the full moon. SOAR will not look for counterparts, but will help to monitor targets faint enough that could not be observed by smaller telescopes (< 22 mag). Felipe and Ted Leandro can provide fully processed data with astrometric information and the photometry can be extracted using STDpipe. By default, SOAR filters correspond to sloam griz filters. If other filterset is necessary, please let us know in advance.

C. Telescopes with Specific Contact

Asia + Europe + America Time Zones

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Frequency Contact / Notes
KNC From 15 cm to 50 cm BVRI, griz, Green 15 to 20 very frequent KNC is GRANDMA’s amateur network, coordinated via Slack and kilonovacatcher.in2p3.fr. Amateurs receive GRB alerts automatically but need to be contacted manually when GRANDMA chooses to observe a particular alert. When GRANDMA is observing, the role of the FA is to contact TURPIN Damien damien.turpin@cea.fr and Cristina Andrade andra104@umn.edu, who manage KNC participation and coordination. Share relevant localization information, this can be done in #observations. Cristina Andrade and Damien Turpin track which amateurs respond and whether observations are submitted. They also verify observation timing and appropriateness for the target. It is the responsibility of the FA to follow up with Cristina Andrade and Damien Turpin about if the images were uploaded directly to OwnCloud or the KNC website. Amateur astronomers do not perform photometry. We must consider the observations for GCN production. Damien Turpin is primarily responsible for extracting photometric measurements from KNC images. In some cases, members of the DAG (Data Analysis Group) assist. Cristina Andrade typically compiles the photometric results and uploads measurements to SkyPortal, referencing the contributing amateur(s) in the comment or annotation. Shifters do not upload KNC results to SkyPortal unless explicitly delegated.
Skynet From 15 cm to 50 cm BVRI, griz, Green 19 very frequent if go dschlekat@unc.edu (very motivated graduate) and dan.reichart@gmail.com (PI). The collaboration is running independantly outside of GRANDMA for triggering observations. The GRB chair or the corresponding coordinator or dahliaaql01@gmail.com dahliaaql01@gmail.com can contact them for collaboration usually post observations, after it is approved by the GRB chair

Asia Time Zone

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Frequency Contact / Notes
ASTEP (Antarctica) 50cm Red/Blue simultaneous 20 mag Rare It should be used with care, as only for very southern targets. To initiate observations, the shifter must make a proposal to the weekly coordinator, and the WC will contact sarah.antier@oca.eu to propose the observation (RA, DEC, magnitude limit in R). We can observe long periods (Tristan is the principal coordinator). The data will be analyzed by S.Antier and uploaded to owncliyd. After that, the DAG must perform the measurements.
YAPTH (China) 80cm griz (?) 22.5 max ? Frequent The telescope is a partner of GRANDMA. You can write an email with justification of why it is important to observe, you can provide the coordinates and the expected magnitude in different filters. The data are not uploaded in owncloud and are transmitted by email. The team usually provides independant measurement. The contact is trsun@pmo.ac.cn
AST3-3 (China) 50cm g 21 Frequent The telescope is a partner of GRANDMA. You can write an email with justification of why it is important to observe, you can provide the coordinates and the expected magnitude in different filters. The data are not uploaded in owncloud and are transmitted by email. The team usually provides independant measurement. The contact is trsun@pmo.ac.cn

Europe Time Zone

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Contact Notes
C2PU (France) 1m griz 22.5 Rare Late time obs (not dot request before the source reached 21.5 mag magnitude). The telescope is shared between amateur and professional astronomers, and at times, the wide-field imager may not be mounted. Once validated by the WC, the WC can contact the amateur astronomer Serge Brunier (serge.brunier@wanadoo.fr, cc S. Antier) to request observations — but only if the data will be in publications (not for alerts). The observation proposal should be flexible, offering several possible periods. For example: "Would you be available to observe tomorrow at XX magnitude using [suggested exposure time] and [number of images]?" You can also propose alternative days (e.g., in two days) and vary the filters in one single proposal. The proposal should avoid being too direct, more in the form of collaboration. Serge must has the validation to operate from the PI J-P Rivet. Once observations are completed, the team must reach out to the amateur to obtain the raw data for analysis offline.
NAO-2m (Bulgaria) 2m Unknown 23 Rare Late time obs. Email the PU bmihov@astro.bas.bg. The contact with the team goes trough the WC, GRB chair or the PI. The telescopes is only activated in case of publication as the project
GTC 10.4m griz 25 Rare For spectroscopy and late time observations. Contact feli.agui.fernandez@gmail.com for planning (the WC). The data are not necessarly given to us

America Time Zone

Telescope Aperture Filters Mag Limit Contact Notes
Euler (Chile) 1m griR (?) 23.4 Rare For late time observation and in case of clear serious case, the way is to ask to frederic.dux@epfl.ch, who is doctorant at EPFL. Ask WC
SPECULOS incl ARTEMIS 8x1m grz 23.5 Rare Late time obs. The contact with the team goes trough the GRB chair or the PI. The telescopes are only activated in case of publication as the project is oriented on exoplanet and very limited time is devoted to another project. We ask to the FA and WC to make a proposal to the GRB chair and PI with multiple period proposals it is better if the GRB chair of the PI/co-PIs ask observations for NORTH (SNO in canarias, Julien de Wit jdewit@mit.edu cc Artem Burdanov burdanov@mit.edu) and for SOUTH (Chile, Michael Gillon, michael.gillon@uliege.be cc Sebastien sgzuniga@uliege.be
CFHT 3.6m griz 25 Rare Contact S. Antier for DDT time for very promising sources

D. Telescopes with Unknown Status

Asia Time Zone

Telescope Notes
Zadko (Australia) Possibly not working anymore
AZT-8 Lisnyky The contact is Alexander Baransky abaransky@ukr.net but the team is facing large issues due to the war
Shao/2M Altough mentionned in the GRANDMA list, we never obtained images from the telescopes
New UBAI Telescope 1m Planned next year, waiting from feedback from Yusuf
SNOVA Replaced by TNOT, not functionning anymore
Ali-50 The telescope is broken and the team does not have access, another telescope has been in operation in Tibet by the TSU team
KANATA 1.5-m, B, V, R, I, z'. The contact is from A. Takey. We never operate with this group but they are thrilled to collaborate. In case of a good target but not necessarly for publication, the WC (after validation of the GRB chair or the PI) can send a request to Kawabata kawabtkj@hiroshima-u.ac.jp in a form a very kind email for exemple : zwe have a very nice source XX going with 13:14:42.42 +05:01:50.27 / (α,δ= 198.676730, 5.030630) (l,b=318.045334, 67.217086). And for private info (pls do not share) the source is still bright and must be around 21/21.5 mag in couple of hours. Would you be in position to trigger yoru telescopes and observe it pls ? this weekend and monday ?

Europe Time Zone

Telescope Notes
OAJ-T80 (Spain) pending
OHP-T120 (France) Possible via MISTRAL collaboration, can be possible via mattermost of MISTRAL with Christophe, contact S. Antier
OSN-T120 (Spain) pending
CAHA-2.2m (Spain) pending
OWL / MOSS (Maroc) pending
TTT Proposal Antier & Pillas for 8h in 1st August 2025 — 30th November 2025
OST CDK (Germany) RI, 17 max, Occasional, Contact Rainer Hainich < hainrich@astro.physik.uni-postdam.de>, but it is a telescope based on the top of the roof of the astrophysical department, so there is no possible observation during the night if observations have not been planed before, data are usually uploaded in owncloud, but Rainer can be trained to run stdpipeweb

America Time Zone

Telescope Notes
SED-machine / MMT pending
ZTF Partnership case by case. contact Patrice Hello patrice.hello@ijclab.in2p3.fr and sarah.antier@oca.eu, it will be an independant followup in any case
Colibri Partnership case by case basis
KAIT The telescope is automatic and the team manages well the observations, so the shifters can ask after validation of the GRB chair, their observations in case of a GRANDMA project to the JAIT PI Weikang Zheng weikang@berkeley.edu. No need to ask for SVOM GRBs as it is under SVOM partnership. For Swift of LSST okey