The Search for Optical and Near-Infrared Counterparts of GRBs with the Super-LOTIS Telescope

The 0.6-m Super-LOTIS (Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System) telescope is a fully robotic system dedicated to the search for prompt optical emission from gamma-ray bursts. The telescope began routine operations from its Steward Observatory site atop Kitt Peak in April 2000. We summarize the current capabilities of the system and present some recent scientific results. A progress report is given on the upgrade of the system to allow for simultaneous near-infrared (NIR) and optical imaging. This upgrade will be completed to coincide with the launch of the Swift GRB explorer mission in mid-2004. Swift will have the capability of localizing very high redshift GRBs but absorption by the Ly- forest prohibits optical detection of z > 5 bursts. NIR observations can detect GRBs out to z ~ 10. Although Swift is a multi-wavelength observatory capable of observing GRBs from the hard x-rays to the optical it has no NIR capability. The upgraded Super-LOTIS telescope will fill this NIR need.