SMARTS Enhanced Optical & Infrared Activity in Blazar OJ 287
ATel #8382; MacPherson, E. (Yale); Isler, Jedidah C. (Vanderbilt); Urry, M., Coppi, P., Bailyn, C., Dincer, T. (Yale)
on 8 Dec 2015; 00:07 UT
Credential Certification: Jedidah Isler (jedidah.isler@vanderbilt.edu)
Subjects: AGN, Black Hole, Blazar
As part of our SMARTS O/IR Blazar Monitoring program, we observe gamma-ray-bright blazars with the SMARTS 1.3m+ANDICAM instrument in Cerro Tololo, Chile (CTIO). This instrument is a permanently-mounted, dual-channel imager providing simultaneous detections in the optical and near-infrared.
Strong optical and infrared flaring activity has been reported by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN)(ATel #8372); the WEBT/GASP project, who note that OJ 287 reached maximum brightness in J-band with respect to their 10-year data set on the night of 04 Dec 2015 (ATel #8374); and Valtonen et al, who report a record observation in R-band on the same night (ATel #8378).
SMARTS has been monitoring OJ 287 (BL Lac, redshift z=0.306, Falomo, Scarpa, & Bersanelli 1994, ApJS, 93, 125; Sitko & Junkkarinen 1985, PASP, 97, 1158) since February, 2008. Here, we report on the recently enhanced O/IR activity in the B, V, R, J & K filters. We estimate our errors to be +/- 0.03 mag in the optical, +/- 0.05 mag in the near-infrared.
On UT 27 Nov 2015 (JD = 2457353.8425), SMARTS observed OJ 287 at the following O/IR magnitudes:
B_mag = 15.08
V_mag = 14.56
R_mag = 14.00
J_mag = 12.87
K_mag = 11.14
On UT 05 Dec 2015 (JD = 2457361.8497), the source was observed at its highest recorded O/IR brightness within our 7-year data set (delta mags are with respect to UT 27 Nov 2015):
B_mag = 13.96 (del_B = 1.1)
V_mag = 13.46 (del_V = 1.1)
R_mag = 12.90* (del_R = 1.1)
J_mag = 11.90 (del_J = 1.0)
K_mag = 10.21 (del_K = 0.9)
*In agreement with R-band magnitude reported in ATel #8378
Last night, UT 07 Dec 2015 (JD = 2457363.8527), the source was observed at a decreased brightness in all bands (delta mags are with respect to UT 05 Dec 2015), confirming the J-band trend reported by WEBT/GASP (ATel #8374):
B_mag = 14.46 (del_B = 0.5)
V_mag = 13.95 (del_V = 0.5)
R_mag = 13.41 (del_R = 0.5)
J_mag = 12.38 (del_J = 0.5)
K_mag = 10.77 (del_K = 0.6)
Additional multi-wavelength observations are encouraged. We will continue to monitor this source on a nightly cadence.
Additional data points for this source are available on our website.
SMARTS Optical/IR Observations of Fermi Blazars