Optical Counterpart of the Millisecond Pulsar XTE J1751-305
ATel #87; A. K.H. Kong, P. Challis, M. R. Garcia and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
on 17 Apr 2002; 02:07 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Albert Kong (akong@cfa.harvard.edu)
Subjects: Radio, Infra-Red, Optical, X-ray, Binary, Transient, Pulsar
We have obtained I-band images for the new accreting millisecond pulsar
XTE J1751-305 (IAUC# 7867 ,# 7870 ,# 7872 ,# 7874 ,# 7876 ) with the 6.5-m Baade
telescope and the MagIC CCD camera at the Las Campanas Observatory on 2002 April
14. At
the position of the possible infrared counterpart (IAUC# 7874 ), we found no
optical
sources to a limiting magnitude of I = 22.5. A possible optical
counterpart
with I = 19.6 +/- 0.1 is found at R.A.=17h51m13s.53, Dec=-30d37'23".8
(J2000, 0.2" uncertainty); it is 0.7" and 0.9" from the infrared and
Chandra positions, respectively. Comparing to a Sloan i'-band image taken
on 2002 April 13, no significant variation is found from differential
photometry. Further observations to search for
variability, particularly the 42-min orbital period are desirable to
confirm this tentative optical identification.
