Optical brightening of the blazar TXS 1420+326 (OQ 334)

ATel #17782; Kirill Sokolovsky, Katie Barnhart, Darien Perla, Vallia Antoniou, Elias Aydi (Texas Tech University)
on 8 May 2026; 23:43 UT
Credential Certification: Kirill Sokolovsky (kirx@scan.sai.msu.ru)

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We report the ongoing optical brightening of the TeV-detected (ATel #13412) flat-spectrum radio quasar TXS 1420+326, also known as B2 1420+32 and OQ 334. The brightening was observed by the NMW-TexasTech transient survey, with the following unfiltered magnitudes (APASS V zero-point):

 
# Date (UTC)       JD(UTC)       CV   mag_err  
2026-05-03.31736 2461163.81736 >15.4    
2026-05-07.42112 2461167.92112  15.03 0.14  
2026-05-07.44878 2461167.94878  14.76 0.08  
2026-05-08.32021 2461168.82021  14.46 0.15  
2026-05-08.36828 2461168.86828  14.35 0.05  

The source has reached the optical brightness level seen during its 2024 flare (ATel #16681, #16700, #16782). Over the last decade, TXS 1420+326 has displayed a series of optical flares, the brightest of which peaked on 2020-01-19.4874 at r=13.11 +/-0.01 according to its ZTF lightcurve. The current optical brightening of TXS 1420+326 follows reports of its elevated activity in the GeV (ATel #17654) and radio (ATel #17745) bands.

The NMW-TexasTech survey operates two unfiltered QHY600M CMOS cameras attached to Rokinon 135mm telephoto lenses on ZWO AM5 mounts located at TTU Preston Gott Skyview Observatory (Shallowater, Texas).