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Searches for optical counterparts of BATSE gamma-ray bursts with the Explosive Transient Camera

1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943 USA
   
2. Center for Space Research and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

Received

Abstract:

The Explosive Transient Camera (ETC) is a wide-field CCD camera system capable of detecting short (1-10 s) celestial optical flashes as faint as m ~10 over a field-of-view of 0.75 steradians between -15 and +62 declination. The ETC has been operating automatically under computer control since January 1991. Since the launch of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the ETC has been capable of observing an optical flash coincident with a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Burst and Transient Spectroscopy Experiment (BATSE). Between April 1991 and August 1995, there were seven cases of at least partial spatial overlap between a BATSE 68% confidence positional error box and the ETC field-of-view during an ETC observation. In each case upper limits are placed on the optical-to-gamma-ray flux ratio.

Gamma rays: bursts

• Introduction
• Analysis of ETC/BATSE overlaps
• Conclusions
• References
• About this document ...