Strong increase in the brightness of the radio quasar Ton 0599

ATel #14391; Lukas Waller, Niels Bader, Erik Heidemann, Felix Hemrich, Johannes Knoett, Alexander Lessing, Jonas Ludwig, Dario Rapisardi, David Reinhart, Lukas Schneider, Kilian Schoch, Remco Steineke, Dirk Seifert, Jonas Seufert, Nils Zottmann, Martin Feige, Christian Lorey (all Friedrich-Koenig-Gymnasium / Hans-Haffner-Sternwarte), Lukas Kunkel, Adrian Scherbantin, Karl Mannheim (all Universitaet Wuerzburg), Dominik Elsaesser (TU Dortmund)
on 14 Feb 2021; 18:12 UT
Credential Certification: Dominik Elsaesser (dominik.elsaesser@tu-dortmund.de)

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We report an increase in the brightness of the flat-spectrum radio quasar Ton 0599 (PKS 1156+295; 4C 29.45; z=0.72 - RA: +11:59:31.83 DEC: +29:14:43.83, J2000) since December 2020, observed at the Hans-Haffner-Observatory.
During this period, the brightness in the R band increased from 16.55 (25.12.20 23:11 - JD 2459209.5080) to 14.32 (14.02.21 03:16 - JD 2459259.6783).
This quasar last reached such brightness levels in the period from November 2017 to May 2018 (ATel#10938; ATel#10948; ATel#11624). The measurements during the last 2 nights show a relatively fast increase of brightness by 0.5 mag (R-band).
Due to the wintry weather during the last weeks, we could not monitor this quasar even more closely

R - band magnitudes:

JD 2459147.6505: 16.94 ± 0.04
JD 2459160.6648: 16.40 ± 0.04
JD 2459209.5080: 16.55 ± 0.03
JD 2459225.5863: 15.08 ± 0.01
JD 2459227.5581: 15.05 ± 0.01
JD 2459234.5585: 14.68 ± 0.02
JD 2459258.5468: 14.87 ± 0.01
JD 2459259.6110: 14.45 ± 0.01
JD 2459259.6783: 14.32 ± 0.01

V - band magnitudes:

JD 2459147.6552: 17.30 ± 0.05
JD 2459160.6693: 16.78 ± 0.04
JD 2459209.5126: 16.90 ± 0.04
JD 2459225.5909: 15.43 ± 0.01
JD 2459227.5627: 15.43 ± 0.01
JD 2459234.5631: 15.00 ± 0.02
JD 2459258.5514: 15.23 ± 0.01
JD 2459259.6155: 14.82 ± 0.01
JD 2459259.6829: 14.71 ± 0.01

B - band magnitudes:

JD 2459147.6599: 18.31 ± 0.06
JD 2459160.6739: 17.38 ± 0.06
JD 2459209.5172: 17.46 ± 0.06
JD 2459225.5955: 15.938 ± 0.01
JD 2459227.5673: 15.90 ± 0.01
JD 2459234.5677: 15.52 ± 0.02
JD 2459258.5560: 15.71 ± 0.01
JD 2459259.6201: 15.30 ± 0.01
JD 2459259.6874: 15.22 ± 0.01


These measurements are carried out as part of the long-term AGN monitoring program of the Naturwissenschaftliches Labor fuer Schueler am Friedrich-Koenig-Gymnasium (FKG), the Universitaet Wuerzburg, and TU Dortmund with the 0.5 m telescope at the school and university observatory Hans-Haffner-Sternwarte in Hettstadt (Germany).

As the weather outlook for the next nights will probably not allow further measurements at the Hans-Haffner-Observatory, we encourage further monitoring of this source.

Hans-Haffner-Sternwarte