GCN Circular 21625
Subject
LIGO/Virgo G298048: ASKAP follow up
Date
2017-08-21T00:58:33Z (7 years ago)
From
Tara Murphy at U of Sydney <tara.murphy@sydney.edu.au>
D. Dobie (University of Sydney), A. Hotan (CSIRO), K. Bannister (CSIRO),
D. Kaplan (UWM), T. Murphy (University of Sydney), C. Lynch (University
of Sydney), on behalf of the ASKAP/VAST collaboration.
We are observing the LIGO localisation region (LVC GCN 21513) with the
Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) at a central
frequency of 1345 MHz with a bandwidth of 192 MHz. As the array is still
undergoing commissioning, we are using a nominal 12 (of 36) antennas,
although other site activities may cause that number to vary from one
observation to the next.
Our observing strategy consists of 3 pointings containing approximately
90% of the LIGO localisation region. Each pointing consists of a 5.5 x 5.5
degree square grid of 36 beams, though the exact number captured may
also vary. The first pointing is centered at
RA = 13:09:21.60
Dec = -25:00:00.00
and contains ~48% of the localisation region and the positions of 35
target galaxies (Cook et al. LVC GCN 21519) including NGC 4993, the
host of the possible optical counterpart SSS17a
(Coulter et al. LVC GCN 21529). Observations began at 2017-08-19
05:34:32 (UT) and are ongoing.
Processing and analysis of the first pointing is underway.
Thank you to CSIRO staff for supporting these observations.