There are a number of teams, both professional and amateur, searching the heavens galaxy by galaxy for nearby supernovae (SNe). There are also a few large collaborations focused on discovering SNe at greater and greater distances. For both endeavors the goal is usually to discover as many SNe as possible. We do things differently in Texas. Using ROTSE-IIIb, one of the four robotic telescopes built by the ROTSE collaboration to observe the prompt optical afterglows associated with gamma-ray bursts, we have launched a campaign to discover not the most SNe nor the most distant SNe, but instead to amass a small collection of well observed nearby SNe with detailed, multi-epoch spectral observations beginning at the earliest possible phases.

ROTSE-IIIb and the HET

Taking full advantage of ROTSE-IIIb's 1.85 x 1.85 deg field of view and autonomous operation, we search nearby galaxy clusters nightly for transients. ROTSE-IIIb's wide field of view allows us to search the thousands of galaxies in these clusters, which cover hundreds of square degrees on the sky, in just a few tens of exposures. We can therefore observe most of these fields in a single night, and repeat the search every night. When we identify a new supernova candidate, we invoke our target of opportunity program on the neighboring 9.2m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) the same or following night to obtain a spectrum. By combining this information with spectra taken at later epochs, we can construct a complete description of the explosion. Through this work we aim to better understand the physical conditions of supernova explosions, identify any systematic effects that may affect how Type Ia supernovae are calibrated as standard candles and used to probe cosmology, and also to better calibrate Type II supernovae as standard candles.