The Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS)
  Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) is a synoptic sky survey uses data
streams from 3 wide-field telescopes in Arizona and Australia, covering the
total area of ~30,000 deg2, down to the limiting magnitudes ~ 20 - 21 mag per
exposure, with time baselines from 10 min to 6 years (and growing); there are
now typically ~ 200 - 300 exposures per pointing, and coadded images reach
deeper than 23 mag. The basic goal of CRTS is a systematic exploration and
characterization of the faint, variable sky. The survey has detected ~ 3,000
high-amplitude transients to date, including ~ 1,000 supernovae, hundreds of
CVs (the majority of them previously uncatalogued), and hundreds of blazars /
OVV AGN, highly variable and flare stars, etc. CRTS has a complete open data
philosophy: all transients are published immediately electronically, with no
proprietary period at all, and all of the data (images, light curves) will be
publicly available in the near future, thus benefiting the entire astronomical
community. CRTS is a scientific and technological testbed and precursor for the
grander synoptic sky surveys to come.
