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AGN Monitoring with the Whipple 10m Telescope |
The Whipple 10m Telescope was used to monitor five of the known TeV blazars, 1ES2344+514, 1ES1959+650, Markarian 421, H1426+428 and Markarian 501, during the 2005-2006 observing season and will continue to monitor these objects during the 2006-2007 observing season. The observing timetable for the currrent darkrun is shown below. The gamma-ray lightcurves will be posted soon and will be updated on a nightly basis. We encourage observers at other wavelengths and in other timezones to participate in this monitoring campaign. For more information on this monitoring campaign at Whipple, contact Deirdre Horan or Trevor Weekes. The targets will be observed at the following times of the year: - 1ES2344+514 : October 2007 - January 2008;
- 1ES1959+650 : October 2007 - December 2007; April 2008 - June 2008
- Markarian 421 : December 2007 - June 2008
- H1426+428 : January 2008 - June 2008
- Markarian 501 : March 2008 - June 2008
The 2007-2008 observing season began on 071004. Scroll down for more information. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 October 2007 )
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The Whipple collaboration, which pioneered the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique for the detection of very high energy (VHE) gamma rays, is based at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Southern Arizona, in the United States. The primary emphasis of the collaboration's research effort is the search for and study of celestial sources of gamma-rays in the energy range of 100 GeV - 10 TeV. 
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 September 2006 )
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The 2007-2008 observing season at the Whipple 10m began on 071004. During the May - June 2008 darkrun, Markarian 421, H1426+428, Markarian 501 and H1426+428 will be monitored on a nightly basis. Please take whatever data you can on these objects during that time. Please contact Deirdre if you wish to be added to the 10m blazar email list. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 May 2008 )
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The following people at the telescopes listed have agreed to participate, at varying levels, in this AGN monitoring program. | Waveband | Contact Person | Telescope | | | | | | Radio | Margo F. Aller (UMRAO) | UMRAO | | | Anne Lahteenmaki | Metsahovi | | | | | | Infra Red | Josh Bloom (Berkeley) | PAIRITEL | | | | | | Optical | Paul Boltwood | Boltwood | | | Jim Buckley & Vicky Kuen Lee | Antipodal | | | Patrick Charlot | Bordeaux | | | Mike Carini | 0.6m, Bell Observatory | | | Omar Kurtanidze & Maria Nikolashvili | 70cm & 125cm, Abastumani Observatory | | | Chuck Pullen | Coyote Hill Observatory | | | Juan Antonio Ros | Sbadell | | | Alberto C. Sadun | New Mexico Skies Observatories | | | Aimo Sillanpaa | Tuorla | | | Gino Tosti | Perugia | | | Trevor Weekes | FLWO 48-inch | | | T. Montaruli | WIYN 0.9m |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 June 2007 )
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Note: The lightcurve section of this webpage is down but we expect to have it back online soon. Click on the links below to see the results, on a night by night basis, of a preliminary analysis of the Whipple AGN data. For each target, the following information is provided: UTDate: The UT Date on which the observations were taken with the Whipple 10m telescope. Rate (Crab): The gamma-ray rate (in Crabs) detected from this target. If gamma-rays were not detected above the 1 sigma level, an upper limit is quoted, again in Crabs. The peak detection threshold for the 10m telescope is estimated to be approximately 350 GeV. Rate Error (Crab): The error on the reported gamma-ray rate in Crab units. Duration (Hours): The duration, in hours, of the gamma-ray on-source observation at the Whipple 10m. UTC Start: The time, in UTC, at which the Whipple observations started.
Click on the name of the AGN to access the most recent data: NOTE: March 2008 -Lightcurve-updating has been abandoned temporarily. Watch this space: Lightcurves will be back online soon. Markarian 421 H 1426+428 Markarian 501 1ES 1959+650 1ES 2344+514 |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 May 2008 )
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