The blazar AO 0235+164 in a faint state
ATel #16346; Boyko M. Mihov (Institute of Astronomy and NAO, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Lyuba Slavcheva-Mihova (Institute of Astronomy and NAO, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
on 24 Nov 2023; 11:44 UT
Credential Certification: Boyko Mihov (bmihov@astro.bas.bg)
Subjects: Optical, AGN, Blazar
Referred to by ATel #: 16403
We continued our observations of the blazar AO 0235+164, initiated in August 2023 (ATel #16253, ATel #16320). We obtained the following set of BVRI-band magnitudes:
| UT |
JD |
band |
mag |
err |
N |
| Nov 7.9349 |
2460256.434896 |
B |
20.546 |
0.092 |
5 |
| Nov 7.9857 |
2460256.485694 |
V |
19.541 |
0.068 |
3 |
| Nov 7.9356 |
2460256.435648 |
R |
18.749 |
0.098 |
5 |
| Nov 7.9658 |
2460256.465810 |
I |
17.840 |
0.041 |
3 |
Our new observations show that AO 0235+164 is in a faint state with brightness close to its minimal flux levels observed (Roy et al. 2023, ApJS, 265, 14). The blazar does not show significant flux changes compared to the values we obtained in October. Thus, we can speculate that the flaring activity observed August-September 2023 is over. Our entire August-November 2023 set of AO 0235+164 measurements is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Photometry of AO 0235+164 obtained at the Rozhen NAO during the period August-November 2023
