The Angstrom Project Alert System: Real-time detection of extragalactic microlensing

The Angstrom Project is undertaking an optical survey of stellar microlensing events across the bulge region of the Andromeda galaxy ( M31) using a distributed network of 2 m class telescopes. The Angstrom Project Alert System ( APAS) has been developed to identify candidate microlensing and transient events in real time, using data from the Liverpool and Faulkes North robotic telescopes. This is the first time that real-time microlensing discovery has been attempted outside of the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies. The APAS is designed to enable follow-up studies of M31 microlensing systems, including searches for gas giant planets in M31. Here we describe the APAS, and we present a few example light curves obtained during its commissioning phase that clearly demonstrate its real-time capability to identify microlensing candidates as well as other transient sources.