Amateur Blazar Monitoring Outburst Alerts and Tracking

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Amateur Blazar Monitoring- Outburst Alerts and
Tracking

• Mark R. Kidger
• Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
• Tenerife (Spain)

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Introduction

• The equipment available to todays amateur is
  catching up rapidly with professional
  instrumentation.
• A good amateur CCD camera performs as well (or
  better) than the CCD cameras that were mounted on
  large professional telescopes only ?10 years ago.
• Excellent software is also available.

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Introduction

• Amateur astronomers can now use good autoguider
  systems, making long exposures easier to obtain.
• The combination of the CCDs sensitivity, its
  linearity and its on-line software allow amateurs
  to carry out observing projects that were, until
  recently, the exclusive property of professional
  observatories.

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Introduction

• Good quality deep-sky observations can be
  obtained even from bright sites ? useful work can
  be done even by observers near big cities.
• Some amateurs are reaching magnitudes around 21
  with 50-cm class telescopes ? many faint objects
  of great interest to professionals can be
  observed.

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Why Quasars?

• An example of a valuable project with a CCD is
  quasar monitoring.
• There are few observatories carrying out
  large-scale monitoring programmes because of the
  pressure to close small telescopes.
• Many objects are highly variable.
• Space missions are leading to an increasing need
  for high-intensity continuous observing campaigns
  that require many telescopes.

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Why Quasars?

• There is a pressing need for observations to be
  made with small telescopes.
• Amateur observers could fulfil this need as they
  are distributed all around the world (unlike
  major observatories!) and have constant access to
  their telescopes.
• Some amateur observers are already producing
  excellent and valuable data.

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Who and how?

• Some interesting quasars are even bright enough
  to be observed visually.
• In the U.K., the B.A.A.V.S.S. and the The
  Astronomer Group routinely observe several
  quasars visually.
• In the USA, the AAVSO has various quasars on its
  programme.
• A few amateurs (e.g. Paul Boltwood, in Canada)
  already take routine CCD data.

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Visual observations

• Generally limited to V?15
• Errors ?0.2 magnitudes
• Are useful for establishing long-term trends in a
  light curve, but not fine detail
• Plenty of data and dedication are required
• One observation per month is not enough
• Some objects may vary both quickly and with high
  amplitude (0.5 mags. in 1-2 hours).

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Amateur visual data 3c 66a

• BAA visual data on 3c66a defines its behaviour
  over the last two years and shows an important
  outburst.

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Amateur visual data OJ287

• BAA visual data even gives useful inform-ation on
  a magnitude 16 object like OJ287. Flares and
  outbursts can be clearly detected.

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Amateur CCD data

• Paul Boltwood is a Canadian amateur living in a
  bright site in the suburbs of Ottawa (Canada).
• He uses a 5-inch (12.5cm) refractor, with a
  home-made CCD and standard VRI filters.
• He has successfully tracked AO 0235164 through a
  deep minimum when it reached V19.5

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OJ287 - amateur data was vital

• The OJ-94 project was established to observe the
  predicted 1994 outburst of OJ287.
• This is the complete light curve at 22 different
  wavelengths.
• Paul Boltwood supp-lied ?50 of the data.

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OJ287 - amateur data

• Paul Boltwoods CCD data was vital to the
  projects success.
• However, even the visual data shows the main
  light curve features clearly.

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What can the amateur do?

• Contribute to monitoring programmes.
• Observe a few objects frequently rather than many
  objects just occasionally.
• Reduce data quickly.
• Let people know when you see something unusual.
• Monitor faint objects for outbursts
• Let the professionals know when an interesting
  object becomes especially bright.