BOOTES

BOOTES, the Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System, is a network of astronomical observatories with sites in Southern Spain, New Zealand, China, bits of Michigan and Mexico (mostly 0.6m diameter telescope with EMCCD camera at the Cassegrain focus and a g'r'i'ZY filterset. The main goal of the network is to quickly observe transient events within seconds or minutes of being detected by scientific satellites. BOOTES, the Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System, is a network of astronomical observatories with sites in Southern Spain, New Zealand, China, bits of Michigan and Mexico (mostly 0.6m diameter telescope with EMCCD camera at the Cassegrain focus and a g'r'i'ZY filterset. The main goal of the network is to quickly observe transient events within seconds or minutes of being detected by scientific satellites. BOOTES provides an automated real time response to the detection of Gamma Ray Bursts GRBs. Error box size depending, it uses wide field cameras (WFC), ultra wide field cameras (UWFC) and narrow field cameras (NFC) attached to small robotic telescopes, or the telescopes themselves. To study GRBs, it is of the utmost importance to perform prompt optical follow-up observations to detect longer wavelength transient emission associated to the GRBs; BOOTES can perform such follow ups. Its scientific objectives include: