Long Term Monitoring of AGNs with Bell Astrophysical Observatory Whitney Wills Western Kentucky University Advisor: Dr. Michael Carini.

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Presentation transcript:

Long Term Monitoring of AGNs with Bell Astrophysical Observatory Whitney Wills Western Kentucky University Advisor: Dr. Michael Carini

Bell Astrophysical Observatory Manufacturer: Group 128 Primary Diameter: 0.6m f-ratio: 11 Design: True Cassegrain Started building in 1975

Bell Astrophysical Observatory Refurbishment Apogee Ap2p CCD camera Image scale: 0.59arc/pixel, binned 2x2

Major Projects at Bell AGN Monitoring – Dr. Michael Carini Transiting Extra Solar Planets – Dr. Charles McGruder Monitoring of Wolf- Rayet Stars – Dr. Sergey Marchenko HOU – Dr. Barnaby Jupiter and Saturn Week

Observations Student run sessions from WKU’s campus or onsite second images in red filter

What are Active Galactic Nuclei? 1 Normal galaxy

Normal Galaxies Spiral: M31 Elliptical: M87 Irregular: LMC

What are Active Galactic Nuclei? 1 Normal galaxy + 1 super massive black hole at center

Super Massive Black Hole

What are Active Galactic Nuclei? 1 Normal galaxy + 1 super massive black hole at center + 1 accretion disk

Accretion Disk

What are Active Galactic Nuclei? 1 Normal galaxy + 1 super massive black hole at center + 1 accretion disk + 2 relativistic jets of material

Relativistic Jets

What are Active Galactic Nuclei? 1 Normal galaxy + 1 super massive black hole at center + 1 accretion disk + 2 relativistic jets of material =AGN

Active Galactic Nuclei

What are BL Lacertae Objects? The most extreme example of an AGN Highly variable polarization Featureless optical spectra Highly variable continuum emission at all wavelengths

Why Study Them? Featureless continuum means continuum radiation is the only diagnostic They vary so why not? Variability is not regular, can’t get a few cycles and be finished Models of AGNs need data Dr. Carini needs something to keep him out of trouble

Reductions Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF) Removed background and thermal noise from the pictures (Bias and Dark levels) and removed non-linearity (flat field) Measured the brightness inside a circular aperture centered on the star

Before Reduction

After Reduction

Finding the Aperture Used an image examiner tool in IRAF Found the full width, half max of the point spread function of the object and each of the comparison stars Took the average of the fwhm and used it as the aperture radius in a parameter in IRAF

Calculating Magnitudes & Errors Take the magnitude Subtract comparison star(s) from the object (gives a difference) Add back the standard value of the comp stars Gives the mag value of your observation Do this for each image during the observation then average and take the standard deviation between each of the images

Results - Light Curves BL Lac

Results - Light Curves OJ 287

Results - Light Curves 3C 66A

Results - Light Curves AO

Results - Light Curves MRK 501

Results - Light Curves 3C 454.3

Acknowledgements Telescope Operators: Dr. Michael Carini Dr. David Barnaby Ashley Atkerson D. Allen Glass Tala Monroe Charles Poteet Wes Ryle Whitney Wills Data Analysts: Dr. Michael Carini Whitney Wills This project has been supported by NASA, the Kentucky Space Grant Consortium and the Applied Research and Technology Program at WKU

Questions?