ROTSE all-sky surveys for variable stars

These sky patrol data are a powerful resource for studies of astrophysical transients. As a demonstration project, we present first results of a search for periodic variable stars derived from ROTSE-I observations.

Variable identification, period determination, and type classification are conducted via automatic algorithms. In a set of nine ROTSE-I sky patrol fields covering roughly 2000 deg^2^, we identify 1781 periodic variable stars with mean magnitudes between m_v_ = 10.0 and m_v_ = 15.5. About 90% of these objects are newly identified as variable.