Colloquium: The BlackGEM telescopes – Hunting for optical counterparts of gravitational wave sources

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Clik here to view.© S. Bloemen (Radboud University)/ESO

In this colloquium, we will discuss the BlackGEM array of wide-field optical telescopes, which have just become operational at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The NOVA Optical-Infrared Instrumentation Group was responsible for the design and realisation of the telescopes. Besides NOVA, the main partners in the project are Radboud University and KU Leuven. BlackGEM is designed to find and characterize gravitational wave sources, but its deep multi-colour images of large areas of the sky will also be of importance to other fields, such as studies of supernovae, variable stars and near-Earth objects. We will discuss the telescope design, survey plans, scientific goals and early data obtained with BlackGEM.