Status update of the Watcher Robotic Telescope

Topinka, M.; Meehan, S.; Hanlon, L.; Tisdall, P.; Heerden, Hendrik van; Meintjes, Pieter; Hoffman, M.; Jelínek, M.; Kubánek, P.

doi:10.1051/eas/1361080

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…In addition to the follow-up studies on candidates TeV sources we are also undertaking longterm optical monitoring of known and candidate TeV blazars with the Watcher Robotic Telescope [11]. As part of this process an automated pipeline is being developed in Python to undertake rapid photometric reduction of the sources.…”

Section: Long-term Monitoring Optical Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Discoveries and Surprises Revealed through SALT Spectroscopy of the Unclassified Fermi-LAT Sources

Soelen¹,

Klindt²,

Marais³

et al. 2017

Proceedings of Frontier Research in Astrophysics – II — PoS(FRAPWS2016)

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Section: Long-term Monitoring Optical Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Discoveries and Surprises Revealed through SALT Spectroscopy of the Unclassified Fermi-LAT Sources

Soelen¹,

Klindt²,

Marais³

et al. 2017

Proceedings of Frontier Research in Astrophysics – II — PoS(FRAPWS2016)

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“…In addition to the optical photometric observations discussed above, we have also obtained spectra for 7 targets with the SAAO 1.9-m telescope and the SALT. Long term optical monitoring is also on-going with the Watcher Robotic telescope at Boyden in V Ri filters [31].…”

Section: Multi-wavelength Campaignmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical and radio variability of unclassified Active Galactic Nuclei in the Fermei-2LAC catalogue

Klindt¹,

Soelen²,

Meintjes³

et al. 2016

Proceedings of 3rd Annual Conference on High Energy Astrophysics in Southern Africa — PoS(HEASA2015)

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BL Lacartae objects (BL Lacs) and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) exhibit variability in the continuum flux at multiple wavelengths on timescales of hours to days. We report on optical photometric observations of 8 unidentified Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) from the second Fermi-LAT catalogue of AGN, that shows potential blazar characteristics. We mainly focus our attention on the intra-day variability (IDV) with timescales of a few minutes to within a day and the short term variability (STV) on timescales of a few days to months. Variability on these timescales are known to be the result of the shock zones within the jet, hot spots and/or instabilities in the accretion disk. Preliminary differential photometric results, for the 8 target sources, obtained with the SAAO 1.9-m Sutherland High-Speed Optical Camera (SHOC) during December 2014 and May 2015, are discussed. Currently, optical long term monitoring of the entire target sample using the Watcher Robotic Telescope is undertaken to determine magnitudes in the RVi filters, as well as radio observations with the the HartRAO 26-m radio telescope to construct light curves in order to study the variability.

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“…Here, we briefly review the available facilities available at the Boyden Observatory (Section 2) and report on a recent monitoring campaign begun to provide additional optical constraints on known TeV AGN sources, using the Watcher Robotic Telescope [2] (Section 3).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical observations of Very High Energy Sources from the Boyden Observatory

Soelen¹,

Meintjes²

2016

Proceedings of 3rd Annual Conference on High Energy Astrophysics in Southern Africa — PoS(HEASA2015)

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Multi-wavelength observations of very high energy sources can place better constraints on the emission processes at work in these systems as well as the location of this emission. For example, the spectral energy distributions of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) display two distinct components that radiate at lower (radio to UV/X-ray) and higher (X-ray to gamma-ray) energies. If the emission is the result of a simple one zone model, correlations should be observable between these different components. Such correlations are, however, more complicated than a simple linear relation, but show variations based on colour and spectral distribution. It is therefore important to undertake multi-wavelength observations of known TeV gamma-ray sources to establish multiwavelength correlations. We are beginning a long term optical monitoring campaign of known TeV AGN/Blazars, from the Boyden Observatory, using, in particular, the Watcher Robotic Telescopes. Additional observations are capable with the Boyden 1.5-m telescope as well as with the 20-inch telescope recently obtained from the South African Astronomical Observatory. We present an overview of the new monitoring campaign which is being undertaken as well as a brief overview of the Boyden Observatory, and the status of the available telescopes.

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Status update of the Watcher Robotic Telescope

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

New Discoveries and Surprises Revealed through SALT Spectroscopy of the Unclassified Fermi-LAT Sources

New Discoveries and Surprises Revealed through SALT Spectroscopy of the Unclassified Fermi-LAT Sources

Optical and radio variability of unclassified Active Galactic Nuclei in the Fermei-2LAC catalogue

Optical observations of Very High Energy Sources from the Boyden Observatory

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