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SMARTS Reports O/IR Flare of Blazar PKS 0502+049

ATel #7279; MacPherson, E., Hasan, I., Buxton, M., Bailyn, C., Coppi, P., Urry, M. (Yale University); Isler, J. (Syracuse University)
on 24 Mar 2015; 14:46 UT
Credential Certification: Michelle Buxton (michelle.buxton@yale.edu)

Subjects: Infra-Red, Optical, Blazar

Referred to by ATel #: 7329

As part of our blazar monitoring campaign, SMARTS observes southern blazars and blazar candidates that appear on the public Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) monitored source list (http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/lat/msl_lc/).

Relative aperture photometry of target PKS 0502+049 (RA=05h05m23.18s DEC=+04d59m42.72s, J2000, redshift z=0.954) was performed in B, R, and J bands between UT Mar 14 2015 and UT Mar 23 2015 with the SMARTS 1.3m+ANDICAM instrument located at Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory in Chile. We report that this source increased in brightness by delta_B=3.1 mag, delta_R=3.2 mag, and delta_J=3.2 mag. This source was last reported to be in a flaring state in March 2013 (Atel#4858, Atel#4868).

The optical and infrared errors on differential magnitudes are estimated to be about +/- 0.02 mag.

Further multi-wavelength observations of this flaring source are encouraged.

UT Date B R J
14 Mar 201517.9517.1915.13
20 Mar 201516.5115.8213.76
23 Mar 201514.8614.0111.92

More information on this and other sources is available at the SMARTS Optical/IR Observations of Fermi Blazars website: www.astro.yale.edu/smarts/glast/home.php

SMARTS Optical/IR Observations of Fermi Blazars