Optical Observations of the Crab pulsar from March 2 through 4, 2013, with Aqueye at the Copernico telescope in Asiago (Cima Ekar Observatory)
ATel #4878; L. Zampieri (INAF-Observatory of Padova), E. Verroi (University of Padova), G. Naletto (University of Padova), R. Mignani (UCL-MSSL), C. Sigismondi (ICRANet Pescara and Observatorio Nacional Rio de Janeiro), C. Barbieri (University of Padova)
on 11 Mar 2013; 22:35 UT
Credential Certification: Luca Zampieri (luca.zampieri@oapd.inaf.it)
Subjects: Optical, Pulsar
Referred to by ATel #: 5485
During the recent flaring up of the Crab pulsar detected by Fermi, AGILE and Integral (ATel #4855, #4856 and #4869), we were observing the pulsar with Aqueye mounted at the 182cm Copernico telescope at Asiago Cima-Ekar (for a short description of the instrument and results from previous observations see Germana` et al. 2013, A&A, 548, id. A47). The observations were taken as part of the program of the Asiago Winter School on Very High Time and Space Resolution Astrophysics (http://www.astro.unipd.it/~ws2013/). Good data were obtained the nights of 2, 3, 4 March, according to the log in Table 1.
Table 1
White light
Date - Start time (UTC) - Stop time (UTC)
2013 03 02 - 22:18:38 - 22:40:14
2013 03 02 - 22:45:59 - 23:04:53
2013 03 03 - 21:26:10 - 21:48:56
2013 03 03 - 21:53:07 - 22:17:18
2013 03 03 - 22:22:29 - 22:43:48
2013 03 04 - 18:31:43 - 19:31:46
Simultaneous BVR photometry
Date - Start time (UTC) - Stop time (UTC)
2013 03 04 - 19:43:01 - 22:29:39
We performed a preliminary analysis of the light curve with a time resolution of 33.6 microseconds and found no significant variation of the pulse shape during the occurrence of the flare. Although undetected in this preliminary analysis, we cannot yet definitely exclude the presence of glitches. The fractional rms of the light curve (binned at 3 millisecond and including sky and nebular background) is 12%-13% and did not display pronounced variations during the three observing nights. A more refined discussion must await the barycenterization procedure, which will take some more time.
