The unblinking eye on the sky

Abstract

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a next-generation optical synoptic survey motivated by the search for rare and fast-evolving optical transients. ZTF succeeds the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey and the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) survey on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope (P48) at Palomar Observatory. The PTF began operations in 2009, emphasizing large area surveys to characterize the optical transient sky. The iPTF has operated for the past four years, emphasizing same-night multicolour follow-up of transient candidates, most recently using a novel ultralow-resolution spectrograph on the robotic Palomar 60-inch telescope (P60). The survey camera on the P48 (CFH12K, originally used on the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope) had a field of view of eight deg^2.