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FSRQ PKS 1222+216: Optical follow-up from MIRO

ATel #6207; K. S. Baliyan, Sunil Chandra, Deepti, Sanya Matta (Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India)
on 7 Jun 2014; 07:32 UT
Credential Certification: Kiran S Baliyan (baliyan@prl.res.in)

Subjects: Infra-Red, Optical, Gamma Ray, Request for Observations, AGN, Blazar, Quasar

Following the recent reports on the high state of the FSRQ PKS 1222+216 (also known as 4C+21.35 and 2FGLJ1224.9+2122) at redshift 0.432, in optical (Atel#5921), VHE (Atel#5981) and NIR (Atel#6194), we followed up the source in optical from Mt Abu InfraRed Observatory (MIRO) on June 3, 2014. We monitored PKS1222+216 in R-band for more than 3 hours, starting on 2014 June 3.882, to detect any intra-night variability. While we find the source non-variable on June 3, the estimated brightness values in various bands (un-corrected for Galactic extinction) are: R=14.96+/- 0.010, V=15.13+/-0.005, B=15.56+/-0.01. The radio quasar PKS1222+216 seems to be fairly active with several flaring episodes over the last 5-years as reported by Fermi (Atel#2021, Atel#2349,Atel#2584, Atel#2687), AGILE(Atel#2348, Atel#2686), SWIFT(Atel#2698), MAGIC(Atel#2684), VERITAS(Atel#5981) etc. Larionov et al(Atel#5921) report source in its one of the brightest phase (quiescent R mag ~15.7 during 2012-13) during 2014 February 24-25 with R-band magnitudes as 13.86 and 13.80. They also reported low (2-5%)optical polarization for the source. A flaring in NIR is reported on 2014 March 19(Atel#6194) with J=13.21, H=12.31 and Ks=11.38 Mags. Our observations, therefore, report the source in decaying phase. PKS1222+216 has also shown variable optical polarization on inter-night timescale(2010 June 19:4.31%, June 20:1.47%; Atel#2693), which correlates with optical flux. PKS1222+216 is, therefore, an interesting source and requires long-term monitoring in all windows of the spectrum.