Flaring Blazars from CRTS

ATel #3853; A. A. Mahabal, A. J. Drake, S. G. Djorgovski, R. Williams, M. J. Graham, C. Donalek (Caltech); V. Mohan (IUCAA); S. Barway (SAAO); E. C. Beshore, S. M. Larson (LPL/UA); J. Prieto (OCIW); M. Catelan (PUC); E. Christensen (Gemini Observatory)
on 8 Jan 2012; 09:28 UT
Credential Certification: Ashish Mahabal (aam@astro.caltech.edu)

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We report the discovery of several flaring radio sources and blazars by the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) Survey during the last few weeks. All these were announced in real-time on the CRTS website and Skyalert.

ID	Disc. Date	RA	Dec	Disc. Mag	Comment (redshift/NVSS flux)
CSS120101:110250+525013	2012-01-01	11:02:49.86	+52:50:12.7	17.14	z=0.69; 23.6 mJy
CSS111230:080552+383538	2011-12-30	08:05:51.78	+38:35:37.9	17.63	z=0.475; 13.3 mJy
CSS111229:093808+515104	2011-12-29	09:38: 7.91	+51:51: 3.8	17.97	15.3 mJy
CSS111225:034216+385907	2011-12-25	03:42:16.25	+38:59: 6.6	17.92	87GB 033858.9+384925; Class; Possible match of Fermi 1FGL J0342.2+3859; 61.3 mJy
CSS111216:074836+240024	2011-12-16	07:48:36.15	+24:00:23.7	16.19	PKS_0745+241; z=0.0409; 957.5 mJy
CSS111122:100253+121615	2011-11-22	10:02:52.88	+12:16:14.7	18.93	FIRST; 200.7 mJy
CSS111117:112759+362029	2011-11-17	11:27:58.90	+36:20:28.7	16.37	FIRST; 168.0 mJy
CSS111028:164311+635843	2011-10-28	16:43:11.40	+63:58:43.5	18.25	35.1 mJy
CSS111018:023752+284809	2011-10-18	02:37:52.39	+28:48: 8.7	16.15	4C+28.07; HB89_0234+285; z=1.213; 2196.9 mJy
CSS111017:095537+103753	2011-10-17	09:55:36.67	+10:37:52.5	16.64	ROSAT; z=0.284; No NVSS

Follow-up images for these and many other CRTS objects from Palomar 1.5m telescope are available at: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/P60FollowUp/

CSS111216:074836+240024, CSS111117:112759+362029, CSS111018:023752+284809 show a relatively sharp rise by about 2 magnitudes in a short period. CSS111017:095537+103753 has been almost continually brightening over the last 7 years.

More information and finding charts can be found at http://voeventnet.caltech.edu/feeds/ATEL/CRTS/ or by clicking the links above.
All CRTS Blazar discoveries are available from http://crts.caltech.edu/.

We are grateful to the all the observers involved in follow-up observations. Further follow-up is requested. A search for the corresponding gamma-ray flares in the Fermi data would be useful.