Publications

Selected Papers

Colour variations in the GRB 120327A afterglow – A. Melandri, S. Covino, E. Zaninoni, S. Campana, J. Bolmer, B. E. Cobb, J. Gorosabel, J.-W. Kim, P. Kuin, D. Kuroda, D. Malesani, C. G. Mundell, F. Nappo, B. Sbarufatti, R. J. Smith, I. A. Steele, M. Topinka, A. S. Trotter, F. J. Virgili, M. G. Bernardini, P. D’Avanzo, V. D’Elia, D. Fugazza, G. Ghirlanda, A. Gomboc, J. Greiner, C. Guidorzi, J. B. Haislip, H. Hanayama, L. Hanlon, M. Im, K. M. Ivarsen, J. Japelj, M. Jelínek, N. Kawai, S. Kobayashi, D. Kopac, A. P. LaCluyzé, A. Martin-Carrillo, D. Murphy, D. E. Reichart, R. Salvaterra, O. S. Salafia, G. Tagliaferri and S. D. Vergani, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 607 (2017) A29 [LINK]

New Discoveries and Surprises Revealed through SALT Spectroscopy of the Unclassified Fermi-LAT Sources – B. van Soelen, L. Klindt, J. Marais, R. Britto, P. Meintjes, P. Vaisanen, L. Hanlon, D. Murphy, Frontier Research in Astrophysics II (2016) [LINK]

Blazar monitoring with the Watcher robotic telescope – P. Tisdall, L. Hanlon, D. Murphy, M. Topinka, S. Meehan, A. Martin-Carrillo, M. Jelínek, P. Meintjes, B. van Soelen, M. Hoffman, Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica (Serie de Conferencias) Vol. 45, pp. 71–72 (2014) [LINK]

GRB 120711A: an intense INTEGRAL burst with long-lasting soft gamma-ray emission and a powerful optical flash – A. Martin-Carrillo, L. Hanlon, M. Topinka, A.P. LaCluyzé, V. Savchenko, D.A. Kann, A.S. Trotter, S. Covino, T. Krühler, J. Greiner, S. McGlynn, D. Murphy, P. Tisdall, S. Meehan, C. Wade, B. McBreen, D.E. Reichart, D. Fugazza, J.B. Haislip, A. Rossi, P. Schady, J. Elliott, S. Klose (2014), Astronomy & Astrophysics, 567, 84 (2014) [LINK]

Gamma-Ray burst afterglows with the Watcher robotic telescope – M. Topinka, L. Hanlon, S. Meehan, P. Tisdall, M. Jelínek, P. Kubánek, H. van Heerden, P. Meintjes (2014), Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica (Serie de Conferencias) Vol. 45, pp. 65–68 (2014) [LINK]

Integration of the Watcher Telescope into the Sierra Stars Observatory Network – Lessons Learned for GLORIA – M. Topinka, L. Hanlon, S. Meehan, Acta Polytechnica 53.1 (2013) [LINK]

Status update of the Watcher Robotic Telescope – M. Topinka, S. Meehan, L. Hanlon, P. Tisdall, H. van Heerden, P. Meintjes, M. Hoffman, M. Jelínek and P. Kubánek,  EAS Publication Series, 61, pp 487-489, doi:10.1051/eas/1361080 (2013) [LINK]

A multiwavelength view of the flaring state of PKS 2155-304 in 2006 – Abramowski, A. et al. Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 539, id.A149, 22 pp (2012) [LINK]

Photometry and spectroscopy of GRB 060526: a detailed study of the afterglow and host galaxy of a z = 3.2 gamma-ray burst - C. C. Thöne, D. A. Kann, G. Jóhannesson^, J. H. Selj, A. O. Jaunsen, J. P. U. Fynbo, C. W. Akerlof, K. S. Baliyan, C. Bartolini, I. F. Bikmaev, J . S. Bloom, R. A. Burenin, B. E. Cobb, S. Covino, P. A. Curran, H. Dahle, A. Ferrero, S. Foley, J. French, A. S. Fruchter, S. Ganesh, J. F. Graham, G. Greco, A. Guarnieri, L. Hanlon, J. Hjorth, M. Ibrahimov, G. L. Israel, P. Jakobsson, M. Jelínek, B. L. Jensen, U. G. Jørgensen, I. M. Khamitov, T. S. Koch, A. J. Levan, D. Malesani, N. Masetti, S. Meehan, G. Melady, D. Nanni, J. Näränen, E. Pakstiene, M. N. Pavlinsky, D. A. Perley, A. Piccioni, G. Pizzichini, A. Pozanenko, P. W. A. Roming, W. Rujopakarn, V. Rumyantsev, E. S. Rykoff, D. Sharapov, D. Starr, R. A. Sunyaev, H. Swan, N. R. Tanvir, F. Terra, A. de Ugarte Postigo, P. M. Vreeswijk, A. C. Wilson, S. A. Yost and F. Yuan, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 523, id.A70, 21 pp. (2010) [LINK]

Operating a global network of autonomous observatories – P. Kubánek, A. Castro-Tirado, A. de Ugarte Postigo, R. Cunniffe, M. Prouza, J. Štrobl, H. van Heerden, J. Gorosabel, R. Hudec, P. Yock, W. Allen, I. Bond, G. Christie, S. Guziy, L. Hanlon, M. Jelínek, S. Meehan, C. Polášek, V. Reglero, P. Vitale, Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7740, id. 77400U (2010) [LINK]

The Photometry Pipeline of the Watcher Robotic Telescope - A. Ferrero, L. Hanlon, R. Felletti, et al., Advances in Astronomy, vol. 2010, Article ID 715237, doi:10.1155/2010/715237 (2010) [LINK]

Watcher Robotic Telescope Follow‐Ups of GRBs – G. Melady, J. French, L. Hanlon,B. McBreen, S. Foley, A. Ferrero, R. Felletti, S. McBreen, P. Kubánek, M. Jelínek, P. Meintjes, M. Hoffman, J. Calitz, N. Smith, AIP Conference Proceedings, 1133, 67-69, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3155970 (2009) [LINK]

Flares from a candidate Galactic magnetar suggest a missing link to dim isolated neutron stars – Castro-Tirado, A. J.; de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Gorosabel, J.; Jelínek, M.; Fatkhullin, T. A.; Sokolov, V. V.; Ferrero, P.; Kann, D. A.; Klose, S.; Sluse, D.; Bremer, M.; Winters, J. M.; Nuernberger, D.; Pérez-Ramírez, D.; Guerrero, M. A.; French, J.; Melady, G.; Hanlon, L.; McBreen, B.; Leventis, K.; Markoff, S. B.; Leon, S.; Kraus, A.; Aceituno, F. J.; Cunniffe, R.; Kubánek, P.; Vítek, S.; Schulze, S.; Wilson, A. C.; Hudec, R.; Durant, M.; González-Pérez, J. M.; Shahbaz, T.; Guziy, S.; Pandey, S. B.; Pavlenko, L.; Sonbas, E.; Trushkin, S. A.; Bursov, N. N.; Nizhelskij, N. A.; Sánchez-Fernández, C.; Sabau-Graziati, L. Nature, 455, 7212, 506-509 (2008) [LINK]

 A photometric redshift of z = 1.8^+0.4_-0.3 for the AGILE GRB 080514B – A. Rossi, A. de Ugarte Postigo, P. Ferrero, D. A. Kann, S. Klose, S. Schulze, J. Greiner, P. Schady, R. Filgas, E. E. Gonsalves, A. Küpcü Yoldaş, T. Krühler, G. Szokoly, A. Yoldaş, P. M. J. Afonso, C. Clemens, J. S. Bloom, D. A. Perley, J. P. U. Fynbo, A. J. Castro-Tirado, J. Gorosabel, P. Kubánek, A. C. Updike, D. H. Hartmann, A. Giuliani, S. T. Holland, L. Hanlon, M. Bremer, J. French, G. Melady and D. A. García-Hernández, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 491, Issue 2, pp.L29-L32 (2008) [LINK]

Books

‘Robotic Astronomy’, (2010), Editors: Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, Joshua S. Bloom, Lorraine Hanlon, and Taro Kotani, Publishers: Hindawi [LINK]

Talks

• David Murphy Presentation at the Fourth Workshop on Robotic Autonomous Observatories, September 2015 The Watcher Robotic Telescope

Theses

• Optical Observations of Southern Hemisphere Blazars with the Watcher Telescope – Peter Tisdall, MSc, 2014
• Instrumentation and Software Development for Astronomy – David Murphy, MSc, 2014
• Rapid Photometric Analysis of Transient Astrophysical Sources Detected by a Robotic Telescope – Gary Melady, PhD, 2009
• A Robotic Telescope for Optical Follow-up Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts – John French, PhD, 2008

 

Posters

• The Watcher Robotic Telescope at Boyden Observatory South Africa – L. Hanlon, European Week of Astronomy & Space Science, Liverpool 2018
• Blazar Monitoring with the Watcher Robotic Telescope – P. Tisdall, Third Workshop on Robotic Autonomous Observatories Malaga 2013 [LINK]
• Highlight Results from the Watcher Robotic Telescope – S. Meehan, Second Workshop on Robotic Autonomous Observatories Malaga 2011 [LINK]

 

Circulars

GRB follow-up observations are rapidly notified to the community via notices distributed through the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network or the Astronomer’s Telegrams.

• The list of GCNs generated by Watcher can be found here.
• The list of ATELs generated by Watcher can be found here.