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Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
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<p> The Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) is a multi-telescope experiment designed to observe the optical afterglow of <a href="/facts/Gamma-ray_bursts/oRRU6Fhn">gamma-ray bursts</a>. The experiment currently consists of four telescopes located in <a href="/facts/Australia/qLHpbppq">Australia</a>, <a href="/facts/Namibia/ahXuaypy">Namibia</a>, <a href="/facts/Turkey/KIYAWAs0">Turkey</a>, and at the <a href="/facts/McDonald_Observatory/sop8npHh">McDonald Observatory</a> near <a href="/facts/Fort_Davis,_Texas/P4nEC0fX">Fort Davis</a>, <a href="/facts/Texas/B987WHF0">Texas</a>. </p><p>The Namibian telescope is located at the <a href="/facts/High_Energy_Stereoscopic_System/Tw9ovaIw">High Energy Stereoscopic System</a> site in the <a href="/facts/Gamsberg_Nature_Reserve/MRoX8bxh">Gamsberg</a> mountains south-west of the capital <a href="/facts/Windhoek/FqgWBjI9">Windhoek</a>. </p><p>The ROTSE project is a collaboration of astrophysicists from the <a href="/facts/University_of_Michigan/6e1Ea5xh">University of Michigan</a>, <a href="/facts/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory/tlrLkV7r">Los Alamos National Laboratory</a>, <a href="/facts/Lawrence_Livermore_National_Laboratory/WuXIbIKz">Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory</a>, the <a href="/facts/University_of_New_South_Wales/h64vknzj">University of New South Wales</a> (Australia) and the <a href="/facts/Max_Planck_Institute_for_Nuclear_Physics/4ehcz8eL">Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics</a> (Germany). </p><p>The original ROTSE-I had 4 telephoto lenses of 11 cm aperture, covering a 16x16 degree field of view. This detected the first afterglow of a GRB while the burst was still ongoing, but this was the only burst detected by ROTSE or the very similar <a href="/facts/Livermore_Optical_Transient_Imaging_System/juVQKxaj">Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System</a>. Therefore, ROTSE-II was designed, also featuring a large field of view, but it was never built, since new satellites such as <a href="/facts/HETE-2/lNkD648I">HETE-2</a> and SWIFT could provide smaller error boxes, making a huge field of view unnecessary. This led to the design of ROTSE-III, a more or less conventional telescope designed for fast slewing and operation at multiple locations around the world. </p>