Support ATel At Patreon

[ Previous | Next | ADS ]

griz photometry of 3C 454.3 following its extreme gamma-ray flare

ATel #3047; T. Krajci (AAVSO), K. Sokolovsky (MPIfR/ASC Lebedev), A. Henden (AAVSO)
on 21 Nov 2010; 16:40 UT
Credential Certification: Frank Schinzel (schinzel@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)

Subjects: Optical, AGN, Blazar, Quasar

Following the extremely bright gamma-ray flare of the blazar 3C 454.3 detected by AGILE (ATel #3034, #3043) and Fermi/LAT (ATel #3041) we have performed photometric observations of the source using a 28cm telescope equipped with a SBIG ST-8 CCD camera and a set of griz (SDSS) filters. The observations conducted on November 18/19 and 19/20, 2010, at the time of peak daily gamma-ray flux (according to the Fermi/LAT public lightcurve), resulted in the following:
JD(UT) g r i z
2455519.556 14.06 13.37 12.94 12.61
2455520.543 13.86 13.17 12.75 12.42

Accuracy of the measurements is limited by the uncertainty of the magnitude scale calibration which is expected to be less than 0.05m.

The latter observation corresponds to Rc=12.99 (Jordi, Grebel, & Ammon 2006, A&A, 460, 339) indicating the brightest optical state of the source since early-2008 (Villata et al. 2009, A&A, 504L, 9; ATel #2155, #2181, #2201, #2325, #2332, #2333, #2345, #2352, #2535, #3003, #3005). We will continue photometric monitoring of 3C 454.3 until the end of the current active period. The results of the monitoring will be available on the dedicated web-page listed below.

Dedicated Monitoring Page