KAIT detection of an optical flare from the M dwarf star SDSS J171710.54+615707.3
ATel #6418; W. Zheng, M. L. Graham, P. L. Kelly, J. Mauerhan, O. D. Fox, and A. V. Filippenko, University of California, Berkeley
on 26 Aug 2014; 00:06 UT
Credential Certification: Weikang Zheng (zwk@umich.edu)
The object SDSS J171710.54+615707.3 (with r' = 20.47 mag) was found to
have brightened by more than 3 mag in a KAIT clear-band image taken on
2014 July 22.306 UT as part of our Lick Observatory Supernova Search.
KAIT autonomously began a sequence of triggered follow-up observations
in the B, V, R, I, and clear (roughly R) filters. The clear-band light
curve shows that the flare faded from 16.3 mag to around 19 mag in only
about half an hour. A CCD spectrum (range 380-960 nm) was obtained with
the 10-m Keck I telescope (+ LRIS spectrograph) at the Keck Observatory
on July 29.6 UT. The spectrum shows that the target is approximately an
M5 dwarf. A light curve was posted at the following website: http://astro.berkeley.edu/~zwk/findingchart/kait_lc_flare_SDSSJ171710.54+615707.3.png .
