High Energy Network (HEN)

Hi, everyone,

Aql X-1 is in outburst.  There are hints of superhumps from past outbursts, but there just haven't been enough data points taken with high enough cadence to determine that conclusively. 

Right now, it's R~17.5, but it can be expected to reach 16 or so if it has a full outburst.  It has an interloper, which can be resolved apart only under exceptional seeing conditions, so it would be good for people to report the combined objects' magnitude.

Hi all,

I should have posted this earlier...too many distractions.

Anyway, there were a few ATELs that are relevant for the High Energy Astronomy community:

BL Lac is peaking in the optical and showing activity in high energy EM:

https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14854  and all the other recent ATELs linked in the list on the right hand side of the ATEL page

Hello all!

I observed optical afterglow of GRB 210702A on July 3, 2021, remotely at iTelescope T17. My measurements of magnitude: 18.6 i' +/- 0.4 and 19.0 r' +/- 0.5 about 14 hours after the trigger. More information: https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/30364.gcn3 (in the GCN circular #30364).

With best regards,

Filipp.

Hello all!

I observed optical afterglow of gamma-ray burst GRB 210619B using remote telescopes.

Hello all!

I observed the optical afterglow of GRB 210610B with iTelescope T18. I described the results of my observations in the GCN circular 30181 https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/30181.gcn3 (with correction: https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/30184.gcn3).

It is quite possible to photograph it now, it will be approximately 18 magnitude.

With best regards, Filipp.

Here is a short reminder for a webinar that should be very interesting for observers in the HEN section, well, actually all observers...you can still register for "Observing the Next Galactic Supernova : Will you be ready?"

An abstract of the webinar is available here: https://www.aavso.org/2021-webinars-abstracts#supernova, to register for the webinar click on the link next to the webinar schedule here: https://www.aavso.org/2021-webinars-april-june

Clear Skies

HBE

The KilonovaCatcher project aims to enlist amateur astronomers side by side with the professionals of the GRANDMA collaboration, in the quest to detect the optical counterpart of the merger of two neutron stars, called a kilonova. If the merger event happens sufficiently close to our own galaxy, it can be detected with gravitational wave detectors, but the sky localization will be rather poor. So the GW detectors will only give us a region in the sky where we should look for the kilonova, not exact coordinates.

Ann Zabludoff gave a talk in the July 2020 HEN webinar discussing the Hotshots project. ( https://azabludoff.wixsite.com/hotshots )

I'm trying to learn the ways of Transient Astronomy so I figured to signup. One of the questions they ask in the form is what is your exposure time for a mag 19 star.

Hmm. Good question.

Any suggestions on how to determine this? Is there a standard field with calibrated stars down to that level? What SNR would be it be necessary to achieve detection? 50? What level of stacking is appropriate?

See https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14500  (careful, the first embedded link in this ATLE is a typo (AT 2020hiz) , the second link in the ASCII table is the correct one )

CS

HB

I'd like to draw attention to

http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14452

which reports "Rapid optical variability of S4 0954+65" .

This object is already well observed by observers here at this moment, but in the light of this ATEL , if you have the time to do it, some higher cadence observations (more than one data point per night) may be useful for future research.

Clear Skies

HB