Global Rapid Advanced Network Devoted to the Multi-messenger Astronomer (GRANDMA) Cookbook

Currently, under construction. As of April 10th - Cristina Andrade

User Guide

• 1. Signing Up for GRANDMA’s Utilities
  • 1.1 Subscribing to Slack
  • 1.2 Turning on Slack Notifications
    • 1.2.1 General Slack Notifications
    • 1.2.2 Channel-Specific Notifications
  • 1.3 Getting a GCN Account
  • 1.4 Connecting to GRANDMA’s Owncloud
  • 1.5 Connecting to ICARE Skyportal
    • Setting Your Profile in SkyPortal
  • 1.6 Getting a FORGE Account
• 2. Enrolling in Shifts
  • 2.1 Shift Sign Up: Spreadsheet
  • 2.2 Shift Sign Up: Skyportal
• 3. The Workflows
  • Think Like an Observer
  • New Event Workflow
  • Ongoing Observation Workflow
• Responsibilities of the Shifter (FA) & Weekly Coordinator
  • Shifter’s (Follow-Up Advocate) Responsibilities
    • Before the Shift
    • At the Start of Your Shift
    • During Your Shift: Regular Actions
    • In Case of a New GW or GRB Alert
    • In Case of a New GW Counterpart Candidate from GCN Circulars
    • At the End of your Daily Shift
  • Weekly Coordinator Checklist
    • Communication & Readiness
    • Shift Oversight
    • Decision Authority
  • Shifter & Weekly Coordinator Responsibility Videos
• 4. Determining GW Follow Up
  • 4.1 Gravitational Waves
    • 4.1.1 Preliminary Alerts
    • 4.1.2 Initial Alerts
    • 4.1.3 Updated Alerts
  • 4.2 Procedure for Observing GWs
    • Via Email or Slack (check #gwalerts):
• 5. Determining GRB Follow Up
• 5.1 What GRBs Should Be Observed?
  • 5.1.1 Operational Notes on GRB Alerts
• 5.2 Procedure for Observing GRBs
• 6. How to Respond to Different Astrophysical Alerts
  • 6.1 Responding to BBH Alerts
  • 6.2 Responding to IceCube Neutrino
  • 6.3 Responding to Einstein Probe X-Ray Alerts
• 7. Triggering & Notifying Telescopes as a Follow-Up Advocate (Shifter)
  • 7.1 Observability & Beyond!
    • Usage Levels of Telescopes
    • Telescope teams
    • A. Prompt Response - Automatic / Semi-Automatic Triggering
    • B. Regular Telescopes (by contact for observations via FAs)
    • C. Telescopes with Specific Contact
    • D. Telescopes with Unknown Status
    • Where to Find Telescope Aperture in SkyPortal
    • 7.2 Contacting Telescopes
• 8. Get the Observation Plan (Only for Telescope Teams)
  • 8.1 Retrieve Your Data Promptly After a GW Alert
  • 8.2 Retrieve Data for Follow-Up
  • 8.3 Notify the Follow-Up Advocate
  • 8.4 Reporting Observations
• 9. Skyportal: Creating Sources, Observation Plans and Uploading Photometry for Follow-up Advocates
  • 9.1 Sources & Event Management
    • 9.1.1 Create a Source Page
    • 9.1.2 Adding Classifications
    • 9.1.3 Adding and Removing Tags
    • 9.1.4 Aliases & Candidates
    • 9.1.5 When do you update the coordinates in the source page?
    • 9.1.6 Redshift
    • 9.1.7 GCN Crossmatches
    • 9.1.8 SkyPortal Comments
    • 9.1.9 Summaries
  • 9.2 Observability, Observation Plans and Follow-Up Requests
    • 9.2.1 Observability
    • 9.2.2 Creating an Observation Plan
    • 9.2.3 Monitoring Observation Plans
  • 9.3 Submitting a Follow-Up Request
  • 9.4 Uploading Photometry
    • 9.4.1 Uploading Photometry from GCN Circulars
    • 9.4.2 Force Photometry with ATLAS
• STDWeb Simple Transient Detection for the Web HANDBOOK
• 11. Shift Team Logs: Importance and Best Practices
  • Why Are Shift Logs Essential?
  • 11.1 Structure of a Shift Log Document
    • Template for Shift Entry
  • 11.2 Keeping Track of Observation Campaigns, Images, & GCN Circulars
    • 11.2.1 Subtab: Images Table
    • 11.2.2 Subtab: GCN Table
    • Subtab: GCN Drafts
• 12. GCN Release Protocol
  • 12.1 Who Writes the GCN?
  • 12.2 Purpose of a GCN
  • 12.3 When to Release
  • 12.4 How to Prepare a GCN
  • 12.5 Science & Publication Protocols
    • 12.5.1 In Case of Detection:
    • 12.5.2 In Case of Non-Detection:
  • 12.6 Example GCN Text
    • 12.6.1 In Case of Detection:
    • 12.6.2 In Case of Non-Detection:
  • 12.7 Additional Resources
• 13. Follow-Up Advocate (FA) Manual: Exercise Sheet
  • Section 13.1: Multiple-Choice Questions
  • Section 13.2: Short Answer Questions
  • Section 13.3: Scenario-Based Questions
    • Scenario 1:
    • Scenario 2:
    • Scenario 3:
  • Section 13.4: Scenarios Part II
    • Scenario 1: GW Candidate S230621ab
    • Scenario 2: GW Candidate S230708kl
    • Scenario 3: GW Candidate S230816yz
    • Scenario 4: GW Candidate S231003xy
    • Scenario 5: GW Candidate S231020gh (False Alarm)
• 14. Raw Transcripts of Videos
  • 14.1 What is the role of a follow-up advocate (shifter) in GRANDMA during the next GW observing run (O4)?
  • 14.2 How to register as a GRANDMA followup-advocate (shifter) ?
  • 14.3 Preliminary alert slack message
  • 14.4 Notify telescope teams and Observation plan
    • 14.5 GW alert and what to observe (telescope teams)
  • 14.6 Plans, Images, Photometry (telescope teams)
  • 14.7 GW source candidates - Transients (follow-up advocate)
  • 14.8 GW alert: different types
  • 14.9 Non-European weekly coordinators : How to create a shift in Skyportal
  • 14.10 European weekly coordinator How to create a shift in Skyportal
  • 14.11 Managing the ZTF candidates (follow-up advocate training)
  • 14.12 Managing the Annotation and Adding Sources (Follow-up Advocate Training)
  • 14.13 Sources candidates of GW - advices
  • 14.14 Responding to Gravitational Wave Alerts: Follow-Up Advocate
• 15. Addendums to Shift Protocol
  • 06/25/2025
  • 07/02/2025
• Acknowledgments
  • GRANDMA Observations of SN,2023wrk, a Luminous Type Ia Supernova with Significant Unburned Carbon in the Outer Ejecta