  Funded by $1.2M in grants and donations, we are now building PROMPT at CTIO.
When completed in late 2005, PROMPT will consist of six 0.41-meter diameter
Ritchey-Chretien telescopes on rapidly slewing mounts that respond to GRB
alerts within seconds, when the afterglow is potentially extremely bright. Each
mirror and camera coating is being optimized for a different wavelength range
and function, including a NIR imager, two red-optimized imagers, a
blue-optimized imager, an UV-optimized imager, and an optical polarimeter.
PROMPT will be able to identify high-redshift events by dropout and distinguish
these events from the similar signatures of extinction. In this way, PROMPT
will act as a distance-finder scope for spectroscopic follow up on the larger
4.1-meter diameter SOAR telescope, which is also located at CTIO. When not
chasing GRBs, PROMPT serves broader educational objectives across the state of
North Carolina. Enclosure construction and the first two telescopes are now
complete and functioning: PROMPT observed Swift's first GRB in December 2004.
We upgrade from two to four telescope in February 2005 and from four to six
telescopes in mid-2005.
