Automatized Photometric Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei with the 46cm Telescope of the Wise Observatory
Abstract
We present the first results of an ongoing variability monitoring program of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using the 46 cm telescope of the Wise Observatory in Israel. The telescope has a field of view of 1.25^\circ × 0.84^\circ and is specially equipped with five narrowband filters at 4300, 5200, 5700, 6200, and 7000 Å to perform photometric reverberation mapping studies of the central engine of AGNs. The program aims to observe a sample of 27 AGNs (V < 17 mag) selected according to tentative continuum and line time delay measurements obtained in previous works. We describe the autonomous operation of the telescope together with the fully automatic pipeline used to achieve high-performance unassisted observations, data reduction, and light curves extraction using different photometric methods. The science verification data presented here demonstrates the performance of the monitoring program in particular for efficiently photometric reverberation mapping of AGNs with additional capabilities to carry out complementary studies of other transient and variable phenomena such as variable stars studies.
- Publication:
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Pub Date:
- September 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1088/1538-3873/aa7a55
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1706.05463
- Bibcode:
- 2017PASP..129i4101P
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in PASP