Optical-Infrared Observation of Astronomical Transients with the 'KANATA' 1.5-m Telescope

摘要

In the last decade, studies of astronomical transient phenomena entered a new era, in which we can promptly receive and send the information about transients and variables. On the other hand, large ground-based telescopes can provide only few observation times for them, which is insufficient to perform dense and long monitorings of transients. Here, we introduce our new observatory and telescope, which are developed exclusively for studies of various kinds of transients. Our 1.5-m telescope "KANATA" was installed at Higashi-Hiroshima Observatory in May 2006. We can study transients in near-infrared wavelengths, with polarimetry, and with high-speed photometry. These observation modes have revealed several new features of our targets, such as gamma-ray bursts, blazars, X-ray binaries, supernovae, and cataclysmic variables.