1885 -- 1949: 0-61950 -- 1980: 201980 -- 1990: 301991 -- 1996: 701997 -- 2000: 1802001 -- 2003: 300

• affordable CCD camera• Commercial 14”--32” tel• Computer + automation• High-z SN search

Reasons:

SNe/year

Current active nearby SN searches

LOSS 336 SNe (1998-2003) UC BerkeleySN factory 83 SNe (2002-2003) LBLPuckett 67 SNe (1998-2003) AmateurBoles 57 SNe (1997-2003) AmateurArmstrong 46 SNe (1998-2003) AmateurEvans 41 SNe (1981-2003) Amateur

Currently operation on hold

Scientific Goals of LOSS• Monitor a well-defined galaxy sample• Find lots of SNe and find them young• Do photometric followups for many SNe• Detailed log files for everyday observation• GRB followup New

30 inch (0.75 m) mirror

Lick Observatory,Mt. Hamilton, near San Jose, CA

Funded by NSF, the Sylvia & Jim Katzman Foundation, AutoScope Corp., Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard Co., the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Cruz), and NASA.

•30 inch R-C telescope, f/8.2•Laser optical encoders•Compact and light-weight•Precise secondary maneuver•20 slot filter wheel

•Apogee AP7 camera, 6.8’ FOV, 0.8”/pix•Off-axis guiding•Automatic weatherstation

Telescope Secondary Cameras Weatherstation

Step motors

Guider

Apogee filterwheel

workstation workstation

HETE-2

pc1 pc2 pc3

GCN

Berkeley Lick Obs.

KAIT

90 miles

Fully robotic obs

• Hardware control• Obs schedule and control• SN search schedule• SN search image processing• GRB response

• Program to respond to GRB alerts promptly• Interrupt KAIT and take a pre-arranged sequence of images• Reaching 19th mag within 60s of alerts• Unfiltered obs will use filters

System

Obs.• Obs started at t=105s after burst• 18 data points in the first 10 minutes• One of the best early GRB light curves• One of the few GRBs with reverse shock emission detected

GRB 021211

GRB 020813• A mix of automatic and manually remote obs• Slow early-time power-law decline index

(Li, Filippenko, Chornock, & Jha 2003)

Swift

2. No. of images per night 20s 19th mag 110 img/hr 700-1300 img/night

Interval distribution t < 10 days (80%)Most SNe are discovered young!!!

1. No. of galaxies monitored:

19,000

3. No. of SN discoveries

Year LOSS SNe

1998 201999 40 2000 38

2001 682002 822003 95

95? Oh, No!

• 10% -- 20% of the KAIT time• ~40% of LOSS SNe: some photometry• ~25% of LOSS SNe: good photometry• Daily around max, every 2-7 days after max• 196 SNe observed as of Nov 10,2003.

Distribution of SN followupSome Good Great Total

SN Ia 48 14 70 132

SN II 10 21 25 56

SN Ibc 1 1 6 8Total: 196

Why not Ib/c?? 1. rare

2. tough

When?

We are working on them.

(SN Ia)Li et al. 2001

(SN II-P)Leonard et al. 2002

W. Li, A. V. Filippenko, E. Gates et al. 2001, PASP, 113, 1178M. Modjaz, W. Li, A. V. Filippenko et al. 2001, PASP,113, 308W. C. G. Ho, S. D. Van Dyk, C. Y. Peng et al. 2001, PASP, 113, 1349W. Li, A. V. Filippenko, S. D. Van Dyk et al. 2002, PASP, 114, 403W. Li, A. V. Filippenko, R. Chornock et al. 2003, PASP, 115, 453A. G. Riess, A. V. Filippenko, W. Li et al. 1999, AJ, 118, 2675W. Li, A. V. Filippenko, A. G. Riess et al. 2001, ApJ, 546, 719W. Li, A. V. Filippenko, A. G. Riess et al. 2001, ApJ, 546, 734

T. Matheson, A. V. Filippenko, R. Chornock et al. 2000, AJ, 119, 2303T. Matheson, A. V. Filippenko, W. Li et al. 2001, AJ, 121, 1648R. Foley, M. Papenkova, B. Swift et al. 2003, PASP, 115, 1220

S. D. Van Dyk, C. Y. Peng, J. Y. King et al. 2000, PASP, 112, 1532D. C. Leonard, A. V. Filippenko, W. Li et al. 2002, AJ, 124, 2490D. C. Leonard, A. V. Filippenko, E. L. Gates et al. 2002, PASP, 114, 35D. C. Leonard, A. V. Filippenko, R. Chornock, W. Li 2002, AJ, 124, 2506S. D. Van Dyk, W. Li, A. V. Filippenko 2003, PASP, 115, 1289

S. van den Bergh, W. Li, A. V. Filippenko 2002, PASP, 114, 820S. Van den Bergh, W. Li, A. V. Filippenko 2003, PASP, 115, 1280

SN Ia photometry

SN Iastatistics

SN Ib/c

SN II

SN rates

GRB W. Li, A. V. Filippenko, R. Chornock, S. Jha 2003, ApJ, 586, L9W. Li, A. V. Filippenko, R. chornock, S. Jha 2003, PASP, 115, 844

1. A stable nearby SN search engine2. In collaboration with CfA, CSP: more followup3. Publish existing photometry database: SNe Ia: correlation, H0, local flow SNe II : correlation, EPM SNe Ibc: correlation, SN/GRB connection4. SN rate, statistics5. GRB followup in the Swift era

KAIT is conducting the world’s most successful search for very nearby SNe, and has yielded interesting results on the statistics and photometric properties of SNe and GRB optical afterglows. We have shown that good science can be done with a small telescope when correctly engineered and programmed.