Rapid Optical Transients from CRTS
ATel #3852; A. J. Drake, S. G. Djorgovski, A. A. Mahabal, M. J. Graham, R. Williams, C. Donalek (Caltech); J. Prieto (Princeton); M. Catelan (PUC Chile); E. Christensen (Gemini Obs); E. C. Beshore, S. M. Larson (LPL/UA)
on 7 Jan 2012; 23:14 UT
Credential Certification: Andrew J. Drake (ajd@cacr.caltech.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Request for Observations, Transient, Variables
Further to ATel#3795, we report the discovery of eight rapid optical
transients (OTs) by CRTS in data taken between 2011-12-24 and 2011-12-31 UT.
| CRTS ID | Disc. Date | RA | Dec | Baseline Mag | Peak Mag |
|---|
| CSS111231:031745-001651 | 2011-12-31 | 03:17:45.04 | -00:16:50.8 | 19.3 | 16.9 |
| CSS111230:061645+495133 | 2011-12-30 | 06:16:44.98 | 49:51:32.5 | >20.5 | 16.3☆ |
| CSS111230:032201+084357 | 2011-12-30 | 03:22:00.71 | 08:43:57.0 | 19.5 | 17.6☆ |
| MLS111229:045931+154340 | 2011-12-29 | 04:59:31.14 | 15:43:40.4 | 18.5 | 16.1 |
| SSS111228:052111-222717 | 2011-12-28 | 05:21:11.29 | -22:27:17.0 | 16.2 | 12.8 |
| MLS111228:040055+215521 | 2011-12-28 | 04:00:54.57 | 21:55:21.1 | 21.0 | 19.3 |
| CSS111224:003027+180841 | 2011-12-24 | 00:30:26.75 | 18:08:41.1 | 20.3 | 17.0☆ |
| CSS111224:035521+081626 | 2011-12-24 | 03:55:21.15 | 08:16:25.5 | >20.5 | 15.8☆ |
Notes:
☆ OTs followed photometrically with Palomar 1.5m telescope. CSS111224:035521+081626 was not detected
in follow-up images. Finding charts and additional information for these events can be found at
"http://voeventnet.caltech.edu/feeds/ATEL/CRTS".
These OTs were all discovered in real-time by the CRTS pipeline and openly
published to VOEvent network subscribers (such as "http://Skyalert.org").
All the objects were detected in outburst in at least three consecutive images taken over ~20 mins
and vary significantly in brightness between observations. None of the sources exhibit past
outbursts in archival Catalina data.
It is probable that these transients are regular UV Ceti variables, as is likely for
recent the OTs MASTER OT103630.69-003523.8 (Lipunov et al. 2012, ATel#3844;
Greiner et al 2012, ATel#3848) and LSQ11ei (Hadjiyska et al. 2011, ATel#3832).
However, we encourage photometric and spectroscopic follow-up to probe the poorly
explored nature of these rapid optical transients.
Links to past rapid transient sources can be found at "http://crts.caltech.edu/".
We are grateful to the all the observers involved in follow-up observations.
