SMARTS Optical Observations of PKS 2326-502
Isler, J., MacPherson, E., Hasan, I., Buxton, M., Urry, C. M., Bailyn, C.
Recently, we observed an optical brightening in blazar PKS 2326-502 of delta R = 1.32 mag from JD 245519.8 (UTC 2013 August 15) to 2456534.8 (UTC 2013 August 30); fainter than the previous SMARTS maximum (R = 15.86) on 2456108.5 (UTC 2012 June 30). We report R=16.47 on JD 2456534.8 under photometric conditions. R-band optical photometry is calibrated to Landolt standards in the field. The photometric errors are dominated by calibration errors to those stars; the random errors are approximately 0.03 mags in optical. These observations were obtained using the SMARTS 1.3m+ANDICAM in Cerro Tololo, Chile, as part of our long-term blazar monitoring program. We will continue to monitor this source and additional multi-wavelength observations are encouraged.
optical,blazar,star