  A very unique strength of the Devasthal Observatory is its capability of
detecting optical transients with the 4-m International Liquid Mirror Telescope
(ILMT) and to rapidly follow them up using the 1.3-m Devasthal Fast Optical
Telescope (DFOT) and/or the 3.6-m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT), installed
right next to it. In this context, we have inspected 20 fields observed during
9 consecutive nights in October-November 2022 during the first commissioning
phase of the ILMT. Each of these fields has an angular extent of $22^\prime$ in
declination by $9 \times 22^\prime$ in right ascension. Combining both a visual
search for optical transients and an automatic search for these using an image
subtraction technique (see the ILMT poster paper by Pranshu et al.), we report
a total of 232 significant transient candidates. After consulting the Minor
Planet Center database of asteroids, we could identify among these 219
positions of known asteroids brighter than $V=22$. These correspond to the
confirmed positions of 78 distinct known asteroids. Analysis of the remaining
CCD frames covering 19 more fields (out of 20) should lead to an impressive
number of asteroids observed in only 9 nights. The conclusion is that in order
to detect and characterize new supernovae, micro-lensing events, highly
variable stars, multiply imaged quasars, etc. among the ILMT optical
transients, we shall first have to identify all known and new asteroids. Thanks
to its large diameter and short focal length (f/D $\sim$ 2.4), the ILMT turns
out to be an excellent asteroid hunter.
