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

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

3. Bell Astrophysical Observatory Refurbishment 1999- 2000 Apogee Ap2p CCD camera Image scale: 0.59arc/pixel, binned 2x2

4. 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 2002-2003

5. Observations Student run sessions from WKU’s campus or onsite 3-180 second images in red filter

6. What are Active Galactic Nuclei? 1 Normal galaxy

7. Normal Galaxies Spiral: M31 Elliptical: M87 Irregular: LMC

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

9. Super Massive Black Hole

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

11. Accretion Disk

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

13. Relativistic Jets

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

15. Active Galactic Nuclei

16. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Before Reduction

21. After Reduction

22. 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

23. 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

24. Results - Light Curves BL Lac

25. Results - Light Curves OJ 287

26. Results - Light Curves 3C 66A

27. Results - Light Curves AO 0235+164

28. Results - Light Curves MRK 501

29. Results - Light Curves 3C 454.3

30. 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

31. Questions?