In Experimental Astronomy (all-digital, no physical issues) vol. 59, #3:
Xiang, W. Jia, P. Li, Z. An Optimization Framework for Wide-Field Small Aperture Telescope Arrays Used in Sky Surveys 32 s10686-025-10004-0
Covering the sky requires more than one telescope: in the northern and southern hemispheres, and at different longitudes to beat the day/night cycle. Multiple telescopes can also evade cloud cover losses and downtime issues. But how does one create a good network of telescopes, other than just throwing money (and therefore glass area) at the problem? Xiang et al. run through it: they have implemented algorithms and checks (simulations, down to the level of pixels) to home in on the number of telescopes, their apertures, focal lengths, camera options, etc.
This is relevant to the blog because, as a trial run of their system, Xiang et al. use the coming SiTian telescope array. The SiTian network (Chinese for “surveying the heavens”) will have multiple search telescopes of ~1 meter aperture, plus at least one of ~4 meters for spectroscopic follow-up. Besides the general issue of variable stars (variable for multiple reasons), SiTian will catch supernovae, and any optical counterparts of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), any putative counterparts of fast radio bursts and gravitational-wave detections, and yes, asteroids and comets.