Rapidly Detecting Extincted Bursts with KAIT and PAIRITEL

Abstract

Ground‐based robotic telescopes have proven essential in the first 6 months of Swift operation. The robotic optical 0.7m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) and the robotic infra‐red 1.3m Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL) have contributed important observations during this period, and we discuss efforts to leverage the capabilities of each system to perform rapid, joint observations in the optical and infra‐red. An autonomously paired KAIT/PAIRITEL system offers the potential to rapidly discover highly dust extincted bursts or bursts occurring at high redshifts (z ≳ 5) as near‐IR dropouts.