Transients with the new BlackGEM synoptic telescope array at La Silla

As of August 2019, three new wide-field telescopes are being installed at ESO La Silla, forming the BlackGEM array. Each unit telescope consists of a 65cm primary mirror, coupled with a 110Mpix CCD detector, delivering a field of view of 2.7 square degrees sampled at 0.56"/pix. BlackGEM has been optimized for transient detections, and will observe the Southern skies at a cadence of 1 minute, using six broad-band optical filters. The science program of BlackGEM is optimized for the detection of gravitational wave counterparts; the early detection of transients within the local Universe (d<100 Mpc) using a 3hr cadence, and the detection of more slowly evolving transients using a wide-slow survey. Limits in the broad q-band are expected to be 22nd mag in a 1 minute exposure (5sigma point-source detection). BlackGEM has been designed and will be operated by a consortium of universities, primarily NOVA, Radboud University and KU Leuven with additional participation of Manchester, Potsdam, Hebrew U. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Weizmann, TexasTech, UC Davis, DTU Copenhagen and Trinity College Dublin.