Enhanced optical activity of the blazar CTA102
ATel #13054; V. M. Larionov, S. S. Savchenko, T. S. Grishina (St. Petersburg Univ., Russia), T. J. Balonek, J. Slater, J. L. Tockstein, J. Heatherton, F. Ishraque (Colgate Univ., Hamilton, NY, USA)
on 30 Aug 2019; 13:18 UT
Credential Certification: V. Larionov (vlar@astro.spbu.ru)
Subjects: Optical, AGN, Blazar, Quasar
We report the results of optical monitoring of a violent gamma-ray blazar CTA102 that were obtained using the 0.7-m AZT-8 telescope with ST-7XME CCD (Crimean Astrophysical Observatory), 0,4-m LX-200 with FLI ML4710 (St.Petersburg), and 0.4-m Ferson telescope with an FLI PL1001 CCD (Colgate University Foggy Bottom Observatory, Hamilton, NY). Our data show that starting from 2019 August 27 the blazar increased its brightness from R~16.2 to R~15.1 (August 30, 8.3 UT ), with substantial intranight variability. This finding supports detection of a NIR flare of CTA 102, reported by De et al. (ATel#13051) The R band light curve of CTA 102 is shown here. The current flare is accompanied with a substantial increase of optical linear polarization, that had grown from <5% during quiescence to ~30%, the kind of behavior that is not unusual for this blazar (see, e.g. ATel#10330).
