BG-Qscan survey

The BlackGEM Qscan survey

Transients are dramatic brightenings of astronomical objects: exploding stars such as upernovae and gamma-ray bursts or temporary flares as in novae and dwarf novae. Most transients develop on time scales much slower than those expected for gravitational wave counterparts. In a search for these counterparts older, more slowly evolving transients will cause a ‘background’ of events that needs to be charted. This is the aim of the BG -Qscan survey: every two days the BlackGEM array will chart >1 000 square degrees of the Southern Skies in the q-band to find more slowly varying transients.