Monday

The Gravitational Wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is an array of telescopes optimised to search for transient electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) signals reported by the Advanced LIGO and VIRGO arrays. In addition to responding to GW detections, GOTO will also pursue an ongoing sky survey providing recent epochs for reference. The data collected in survey mode will enable a wide variety of time domain/transient science. In its current phase, GOTO operates with 4x40cm telescopes at La Palma Observatory. We describe the scientific goals and design philosophy behind GOTO and present our plans to build up the array with additional telescopes in the near future.