Astronomical Instrumentation and Development

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The Berkeley Automated Supernova Search has passed its proof of concept. This award will build a powerful, new scientific tool by locating the search at a remote site with a darker sky, better seeing, and better weather than the present location. Combining this with a new CCD and a faster computer, will increase the sensitivity for finding supernovae to 20th magnitude and decrease the processing time per image from seventy to thirty seconds. Funding for a telescope, a CCD camera, a building, and the necessary computers has already been obtained. This award will cover the deployment and testing of the new remote search. The scientific goals of the search are to find supernovae at the earliest possible time and to find a large number of supernovae for statistical purposes. Finding supernovae early and following them up with light curves and spectra will aid theorists who study the mechanism of supernova explosions and aid in the study of supernovae as distance indicators. Supernova statistics (in particular the supernova rate in galaxies) provides information about galaxy composition and evolution as well as the structure, kinematics, and composition of the interstellar medium.