Recent enhancement of the R-band optical flux from the active blazar S5 0716+714
ATel #11676; Alessandro Marchini (Astronomical Observatory, Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment (DSFTA), University of Siena - Italy), Lorenzo Bellizzi, Giacomo Bonnoli, Vincenzo Millucci, Leonardo Stiaccini, Bartolomeo Trefoloni (DSFTA, University of Siena - Italy)
on 1 Jun 2018; 12:50 UT
Credential Certification: Giacomo Bonnoli (giacomo.bonnoli@unisi.it)
Subjects: Optical, Blazar
We report that the blazar S5 0716+714 (RA: 7 21 53.45 Dec: 71 20 36.36 J2000.0) reached last night (May 31.83) the optical magnitude R=12.16(0.01). The blazar is bright in optical since a few months (see ATel #11107,#11339) and we are monitoring it from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Siena since the unprecedented flare in VHE gamma rays reported by the MAGIC Collaboration in December 2017 (ATel #11100). The following table reports our last measurements:
Civil Date (UT) Rmag(dRmag)
2018 May 24.83 12.52(0.01)
2018 May 25.83 12.58(0.01)
2018 May 31.83 12.16(0.01)
This is the brightest R-band optical state of S5 0716+714 measured along our campaign; similar or lower magnitudes have been reached only a few (4-5) times along the last 15 years according to the long term monitoring made publicly available by the Tuorla Observatory at http://users.utu.fi/kani/1m/S5_0716+714.html .
Details of the observations and of the photometric analysis follow closely those reported in our previous ATels regarding this source (see e.g. ATel #11339). A brief description of the instrumental setup is available there as well.
Any enquiry on these observations can be addressed either to Alessandro Marchini (alessandro.marchini@unisi.it) or to Giacomo Bonnoli (giacomo.bonnoli@unisi.it). We will continue monitoring the source in the following nights. Multi-wavelength follow-up is encouraged.
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