The Blazar 1ES 1959+650 reaches a new stage of increased optical activity

ATel #16083; O. Koppitz, J. Seufert, K. Schoch, D. Schneider, T. Scheller, J. Ludwig, A. Ludwig, A. Lessing, D. Kuberek, P. Kaplan, F. Kaplan, F. Hemrich, M. Graef, L. A. Girschick, L. S. Girschick, N. Boutter, N. Bader, E. Ankara, M. Feige, D. Reinhart, R. Steineke, N. Zottmann, C. Lorey (all Hans-Haffner-Sternwarte - Friedrich-Koenig-Gymnasium) A. Scherbantin, K. Mannheim (Universitaet Wuerzburg), D. Elsaesser (TU Dortmund)
on 13 Jun 2023; 15:03 UT
Credential Certification: Dominik Elsaesser (dominik.elsaesser@tu-dortmund.de)

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The BL Lac type object 1ES 1959+650 (RA: 19 59 59.8520 Dec: +65 08 54.6525; ICRS J2000; z=0,048) last night reached its highest optical brightness in nearly four years.
After this blazar showed a remarkable increase in optical brightness in December 2022 (ATel # 15778), it finally reached a brightness of 14.229 mag in R-band. After that, the AGN faded again to slightly more than 14.5 mag (R-band) in April this year. Since then its brightness has been increasing and reached a plateau phase on 10 June with values between 13.80 and 13.85 mag, and is now slowly approaching a value of 13.80 (all R-Band).
The values we have measured do not yet reach the high brightness values of over 13.6 mag (R-band) from 2016 to 2019, but the current brightness is the highest in almost four years.

We report the following preliminary R-band magnitudes:
JD 2460061.4627: 14.522 ± 0.032
JD 2460068.4329: 14.422 ± 0.010
JD 2460077.5409: 14.245 ± 0.008
JD 2460078.5538: 14.225 ± 0.006
JD 2460082.5214: 14.181 ± 0.013
JD 2460089.5458: 14.174 ± 0.006
JD 2460090.3753: 14.156 ± 0.007
JD 2460092.4936: 14.193 ± 0.006
JD 2460094.5272: 14.154 ± 0.012
JD 2460096.4270: 14.108 ± 0.007
JD 2460098.5305: 14.040 ± 0.035
JD 2460099.4396: 13.984 ± 0.008
JD 2460100.3862: 14.032 ± 0.007

JD 2460105.5910: 13.821 ± 0.019

JD 2460106.3839: 13.847 ± 0.006
JD 2460106,4579: 13,822 ± 0,005
JD 2460106,5705: 13,838 ± 0,006

JD 2460107,3862: 13,821 ± 0,006
JD 2460107,3917: 13,821 ± 0,005

JD 2460108.3829: 13.813 ± 0.006
JD 2460108,4793: 13,805 ± 0,006
JD 2460108,5010: 13,786 ± 0,006
JD 2460108,5516: 13,790 ± 0,007

As already suspected in December 2022, 1ES 1959 could enter a new phase of activity, which is why we would like to inspire multiwavelength measurements of this object.


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 the TU Dortmund with the 0.5m CDK-astrograph by using Bessel-filters at the school and university observatory Hans-Haffner-Sternwarte in D-97265 Hettstadt (Germany).

Naturwissenschaftliches Labor fuer Schueler am Friedrich-Koenig-Gymnasium