  Currently, it may take days for a bright nova outburst to be detected. With
the few exceptions, little is known about novae behaviour prior to maximum
light. A theoretically-predicted population of ultra-fast novae with t2<1d is
evading observational discovery because it is not possible to routinely
organize fast follow-up observations of nova candidates. With the aim of
brining the detection time of novae and other bright (V<13.5) optical
transients from days down to hours or less, we develop an automated wide-field
(8x6 deg.) system capable of surveying the whole Milky Way area visible from
the observing site in one night. The system is built using low-cost
mass-produced components and the transient detection pipeline is based on the
open source VaST software. We describe the instrument design and report results
of the first observations conducted in October-November 2011 and January-April
2012. The results include the discovery of Nova Sagittarii 2012 No. 1 as well
as two X-ray emitting cataclysmic variables 1RXS J063214.8+25362 and XMMSL1
J014956.7+533504. The rapid detection of Nova Sagittarii 2012 No. 1 enabled us
to conduct its X-ray and UV observations with Swift 22 hours after discovery
(~31 hour after the outburst onset). All images obtained during the transient
search survey are available online.
