Institution: | aINAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Bianchi 46, I-23807 Merate (Lc), Italy bUniversità di Milano Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo 1, Milano, Italy cINAF, Viale del Parco Mellini 84, I-00136 Roma, Italy dIASF-CNR, via Piero Gobetti, 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy eINAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via di Frascati 33, I-00040, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy fINAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via S. Sofia 78, I-95123 Catania, Italy gCNR-IASF, Via Ugo La Malfa 153, I-90146 Palermo, Italy hUniversità di Perugia, Piazza Università 1, I-06100 Perugia, Italy |
Abstract: | Observations of the prompt afterglow of γ-ray burst events are unanimously considered of paramount importance for GRB science and cosmology. Such observations at NIR wavelengths are even more promising allowing the monitoring of high-z Ly- absorbed bursts as well as events occurring in dusty star-forming regions. In these pages we present rapid eye mount (REM), a fully robotized fast slewing telescope equipped with a high throughput NIR (Z, J, H, K) camera dedicated to detecting the prompt IR afterglow. REM can discover objects at extremely high redshift and trigger large telescopes to observe them. The REM telescope will simultaneously feed REM optical slitless spectrograph (ROSS) via a dichroic. ROSS will intensively monitor the prompt optical continuum of GRB afterglows. The synergy between the REM-IR camera and the ROSS spectrograph makes REM a powerful observing tool for any kind of fast transient phenomena. Beside its ambitious scientific goals, REM is also technically challenging since it represent the first attempt to locate a NIR camera on a small telescope providing, with ROSS, unprecedented simultaneous wavelength coverage on a telescope of this size. |