Life Beyond PTF

Abstract: In March 2017, the Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) ceased operations. I take this occasion to review the scientific returns from iPTF and its predecessor survey, the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), and to summarize the lessons learned. Succeeding iPTF on the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Schmidt telescope is the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a new survey with an order of magnitude faster survey speed that is now being commissioned. I describe the design and scientific rationale for ZTF. ZTF is prototyping new alert stream technologies being explored by the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) to distribute millions of transient alerts per night to downstream science users. I describe the design of the alert system and discuss it in the context of the wider LSST and community broker ecosystem.