GCN Circular 21687
Subject
LIGO/Virgo G298048: MASTER Global-Net early optical observations and   the Possible KiloNova SSS17a in NGC 4993 photometry and merging rate
Event
Date
2017-08-25T08:48:24Z (8 years ago)
From
Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs  <lipunov2007@gmail.com>
V.M.Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, V.G.Kornilov, N.Tyurina, V.Shumkov, D.Kuvshinov, 
P.Balanutsa,  O.Gress, A.Kuznetsov, M.I.Panchenko, A.V.Krylov, I.Gorbunov
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute
R.Podesta, C.Lopez, F.Podesta
Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) , National University of San
Juan, Argentina
H.Levato, C.Saffe
Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas,de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE),
San Juan, Argentina
D.Buckley, S.Potter, M.Kotze,
South African Astronomical Observatory
N.M. Budnev, O. Gress, K. Ivanov, S.Yazev
Irkutsk State University
V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, A.Gabovich
Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk
R. Rebolo, M. Serra-Ricart, G. Israelian, N.Lodiu
The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
A. Tlatov, V.Sennik
Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory
MASTER Global Robotic Net (http:/ / observ.pereplet.ru/ ) consists of a 
new generation of fast robotic telescopes that
installed on different continents during recent years.
MASTER-II are twin 40 cm wide field (2x4 square degrees, 1 pixel = 2.0 
arcsec) optical robotic telescopes located in the following observatories:
MASTER-Amur (far east of Russia, Blagoveshchensk), MASTER-Tunka (Russia, 
Baykal lake), MASTER-Kislovodsk, MASTER-Tavrida (Russia), MASTER-SAAO (South Africa), 
MASTER-IAC (Spain, Canarias), and MASTER-OAFA (Argentina, MASTER I yet).
MASTER observatories are equipped with their own identical photometers and 
are controlled by identical software (Lipunov et al., "MASTER Global 
Robotic Net",  Advances in Astronomy, 2010, 30L).
  The identical equipment gives us the possibility of having up to  24 
continuous hours observations of optical counterparts of GRBs in identical
photometric systems. Therefore, combining photometric data for different 
GRBs observed from different parts of the MASTER Net is a well-justified 
astronomical process (see last result in Troya, Lipunov, Mundel  et al., 
Nature, 2017, vol.547,425-427)
Taking into account the large field of view of the MASTER II telescopes (8 
square degrees), we can use a large number (1000 - 5,000)
of reference stars for reduction. As a result, the photometric errors of 
large catalogs, Tycho II and   USNO-B1, shouldbe leveled out.
Global MASTER-Net started to observe LIGO/Virgo G298048 error field at 
2017-08-17 17:06:47 UT.
MASTER-SAAO (MASTER II robotic telescope at South Africa Astronomical 
Observatory, Sutherland) automaticaly have imaged the initial BAYESTAR error 
field received by socket connection (LVC GCN 21505) including
common region with Fermi GBM error box  (Connaughton  et al., LVC GCN 21506) 
immediatelly after sunset  at 2017-08-17 17:06:47 = 2017-08-17.71304 (JD = 
2457983.21304398) i.e. 15943 sec after LVC trigger time (12:41:04 UT) .
 	The coaadded (3x180sec) first   unfiltered images limit is 19.8. This 
image  included ICECube candidate N4   (Bartos et al  LVC GCN 21511). No OTs 
found  in this error box.
After that MASTER-SAAO telescope continue to image Fermi and LVC initial common 
error field and all Ice Cube candidates. The unfiltered limits and fields 
one can find at GraceDB. Cover map is available at
http://master.sai.msu.ru/static//ligo/db/G298048/151A//img/MASTER.G298048.180.24.gif
No OTs found at this observations.
The Possible KiloNova SSS17a in NGC 4993 (Coulter et al., LVC GCN 21529) 
is  not covering by MASTER-SAAO at 17 Aug 2017.
MASTER-OAFA  (MASTER I robotic telescope with FOV = 6 square degrees;  at Argentina, Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar 
(OAFA), National University of San Juan,) have imaged the new BAYESTAR-HLV
localization map of  LIGO/Virgo  G298048 (GCN 21513) starting
2017-08-17 22:54:18 =  2017-08-17.954375 from  first field (6 square degrees):
RA, DEC  = 12h 59m 00.00s -19d 59m 38.00s
Unforunatelly the first telescope image not include sss17a.
But fortunally 
there are two MASTER Very Wide Field cameras (FOV = 2x380 square degrees, 
22 arcsec in pixel, see Lipunov et al.,  2010, MASTER Robotic Net, 
Advances in Astronomy, vol. 2010, pp. 1-7)  at same mount.
As the results we have large seria ("video") MASTER VWF cameras images 
exposition and without time gap of the all LIGO/Virgo G298048 error box include 
the NGC 4993 galaxy. We see NGC 4993 galaxy on coadded images. After the 
images substraction with refernce very wide field camera images we see 
some excess (see Table 1) at NGC 4993 position with flux corresponded to ~15.3 
mag.
Starting from 2017-08-17 22:58:48 UT = 2017-08-17 22:58:48 MASTER-OAFA have 
imaged  new BAYESTAR-HLV localization map of  LIGO/Virgo  G298048 (GCN 21513) 
with unfiltered images (150 sec exposition) limit 19-20 magnitudes. The coadded 
images limit grows to 20.5.
At 2017-08-17 23:59:54 UT   i.e. 11 h 18m 50 sec after LVC trigger time 
MASTER-OAFA robotic telescope independently from any optical 
information take second image with NGC 
4993 galaxy where Possible KiloNova SSS17a was published late
Coulter et al., LVC GCN  21529, Allam et  al. (LVC GCN 21530