Scanning Sky Monitor On-Board AstroSat

Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) on-board AstroSat is a wide-field imager to monitor the X-ray sky in the energy band 2.5-10 keV. The primary science objective of SSM is to detect and locate transient X-ray sources in the sky. Once detected the information is to be provided to the astronomical community for follow-up observations to do a more detailed study of the source. Long-term monitoring of known X-ray transient sources is also one of the science objectives of SSM. The instrument constitutes three units of 1D positionsensitive propotional counters with coded masks on each, all three mounted on a platform capable of rotation to scan about 50% of the sky in one full rotation. The angular resolution of each unit in SSM is 12' x 2.5°. Sensitivity of SSM is ~30 milliCrab at 3 sigma in 10 min integration time. This article briefly discusses the instrument and a few early results since the launch of AstroSat.