[Vsnet-alert 8383] optical outburst of 3C454.3 (fwd)

[Taichi Kato]

# First astronomical posting?!

   Forwarded message from WEBT:

Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 13:25:26 +0200
From: Massimo Villata <villata at to.astro.it>
Subject: [Fwd: optical outburst of 3C454.3]

Dear All,

Tom Balonek detected a very bright optical state of 3C 454.3 (2251+158) 
last night (R ~ 11.9), at the beginning of the observing season (see 
message below and 
http://astronomy.colgate.edu/~tbalonek/optical/3C454.3.050509a.tiff).
This source was already bright at the end of the last season, even if 
less dramatically: R ~ 13.1 (mid January, from Torino and Sabadell 
Observatories), H ~ 10.9 (from Campo Imperatore).
On the contrary, radio data (5 to 22 GHz) from Medicina and Noto 
Observatories show a rather quiescent state (~ 10 Jy at 8 GHz) from 
December to April.

Cheers, massimo

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:  optical outburst of 3C454.3
Date: 	Mon, 9 May 2005 06:03:12 -0400
From:  Tom Balonek <Tbalonek at mail.colgate.edu>
To: 	Massimo Villata <villata at to.astro.it>

Please make this announcement available to the WEBT mailing list:

The blazar 3C454.3 is undergoing an unprecidented optical outburst.

Preliminary reductions of images taken 2005 May 09, from 8.5 to 8.8 UT:
V = 12.34 +/- 0.05
R = 11.88 +/- 0.05
I = 11.27 +/- 0.05

A light curve of (preliminary reductions) at R optical is attached to this email.

Note, the May 9 observations are the first I've been able to make this observing year.

     Tom Balonek
      Colgate University
      Hamilton, NY   USA
      tbalonek at mail.colgate.edu
      http://astronomy.colgate.edu/astronomy/quasaroptical.html