No variation in the Crab pulsar in the near-infrared J and H bands
ATel #2867; G. Kanbach, T. Kruehler (MPE), A. Steiakaki (Univ. of Crete), R. Mignani (MSSL)
on 24 Sep 2010; 18:40 UT
Credential Certification: Gottfried Kanbach (gok@mpe.mpg.de)
Subjects: Infra-Red, X-ray, Gamma Ray, >GeV, Neutron Star, Supernova Remnant, Pulsar
Referred to by ATel #: 2872
After the reports on a gamma-ray outburst from the Crab nebula region by Tavani et al. (ATel# 2855) and Buehler et al. (ATel# 2861) and the non-detections of variations in the X-ray/soft gamma-ray bands ( Ferrigno et al., ATel# 2856; Markwardt et al., ATel# 2858; Evangelista et al., ATel# 2866) we report on near infrared observations performed at the Skinakas observatory, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece. Around a mean epoch of September 24, 2010, 4:00 UT we obtained about 15 minutes of exposures each in the J and H NIR bands. We calibrated the photometry on 92 unrelated field stars from the 2MASS catalog and determine the magnitudes for the Crab pulsar and a nearby reference star (located at RA=05:34:32.19, DEC=+22:00:56.1), for which the 2MASS magnitudes are: Crab: J=14.58, H=14.05; reference star: J=14.06, H=13.72. We now measured Crab: J=14.65±0.1, H=14.08±0.1 and the reference star: J= 14.03±0.1, H=13.65±0.1 and conclude that at present no deviation from the established magnitudes of the Crab pulsar are detected.
