Optical Flare in the gamma-ray active FSRQ PKS 2032+117
ATel #13796; Tapio Pursimo (NOT) and Roopesh Ojha (NASA/GSFC/UMBC)
on 9 Jun 2020; 13:55 UT
Credential Certification: Roopesh Ojha (Roopesh.Ojha@gmail.com)
Subjects: Optical, Gamma Ray, >GeV, AGN, Blazar, Quasar
We report optical photometry of the FSRQ TXS 2032+117, obtained with
the 2.56m Nordic Optical Telescope in La Palma, to look for any
increase in optical activity associated with its enhanced gamma-ray
emission state (ATel#13752).
These NOT observations were made using the ALFOSC (Alhambra Faint Object
Spectrograph and Camera) instrument. Standard IRAF data reduction
(de-biasing + flat field correction with twilight flats) was carried
out. The magnitude is obtained using SExtractor MAG_AUTO and the
magnitude zero point was calibrated against PS1 field stars near the
target. We estimate the zero point error to be less than 0.1 mag.
We find that TXS 2032+117 had the SDSS magnitudes at epoch 2020-05-28T05:30
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Filter Magnitude Mag_Error
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r 17.57 0.02
i 17.23 0.02
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This compares to PS1 magnitudes at epoch 2012-06-14T11:02:24.000:
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Filter PS1_mag Mag_Error
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r 18.66 0.02
i 18.37 0.01
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This result suggests that there is significant enhancement in the
optical brightness of the flaring gamma-ray FSRQ PKS 2032+117 of over
a magnitude.
We encourage further multi-wavelength coverage. We will continue to
monitor this source and report future developments using this and
other platforms.
