Speaker
Description
The impetus for wide-field searches for counterparts of explosive transients including binary neutron-star mergers, supernovae, and tidal disruption events has never been higher. The ongoing operations with the LIGO-Virgo network of gravitational wave detectors in the 4th observing period continues to offer challenges for optical observers, primarily due to the poor (~100 deg^2) localisation regions. The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO; http://goto-observatory.org) network, featuring instruments in the Canary Islands and south-east Australia, is designed to overcome these challenges, and also offers high utility for searches and followup of other types of transients including gamma-ray bursts and supernovae. A modular design featuring eight 40-cm telescopes on each mount provides a composite field of view of around 40 square degrees per instrument, capable of promptly and autonomously covering large fields of view in response to observing triggers. I will report on the status and progress of the network and our expectations for the detection of future transients.
