The blazar S4 0954+65: the activity at year maxima is on progress
ATel #16331; V. V. Vlasyuk, O. I. Spiridonova, A. S. Moskvitin, O. A. Maslennikova (Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Rus. Ac. Sci.)
on 11 Nov 2023; 10:06 UT
Credential Certification: Alexander Moskvitin (mosk@sao.ru)
Subjects: Optical, Blazar
Referred to by ATel #: 16380
We continued monitoring of the blazar S4 0954+65 since its last activity epoch at 2023 May-June, as it was described in ATel #16261. The both our (1-meter and 0.5-meter) reflectors were used within observing company.
According to our data, the current activity period of the blazar, which have been started at first decade of September, was continued and almost reached 2023 maximum within last days.
After some quasi-quiet state at levels between R=14.5 and 14.9 (epochs from MJD=60218 to 60229) the brightness of S4 0954+65 became higher and reached value as high as R=13.22 at epoch MJD=60258.9. The other data for blazar within this observing night were close to R=13.45 with variations about 0.05 mag. The minimal brightness of the blazar during last month exceeded 15 mag.
Some signs of intraday variability were found and will be presented after more rectified data reduction.
The most of data were taken under good weather condition (seeing better 2 arcsec and normal transparency) and have typical accuracy about 0.01 mags. The worse accuracy (up to 0.02 mag) is explaining by bright Moon sky and some mediocre weather in course of some nights.
We strongly encourage further multi-wavelength studies.
