3-11 July 2007
Merida, Mexico
Mexico/General timezone
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Contribution Oral

Merida, Mexico - Uxmal + Tulum (Holiday Inn)
OG.2.3

Results from the Blazar Monitoring Campaign at the Whipple 10m Gamma-ray Telescope

Speakers

  • Dr. David STEELE

Primary authors

Co-authors

Abstract content

Since 1983, the Whipple 10m Gamma-ray Telescope was operated with a full observing program. During that time, five new sources of very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) emission were discovered; spectral and temporal characteristics of five blazars were established and many other potential sources were studied in detail. In September 2005, the observing program was redefined and the 10m was dedicated almost exclusively to AGN monitoring. Since then the five Northern Hemisphere blazars that had already been detected at Whipple, Markarian 421, H1426+428, Markarian 501, 1ES1959+650 and 1ES2344+514, have been monitored routinely each night that they are visible. To encourage and coordinate observations of these AGN at other wavelengths, a web page containing the observing timetable and the preliminary light curves in the VHE regime is maintained and is publicly accessible through the Whipple link on the main VERITAS web page (http://veritas.sao.arizona.edu). Thanks to the efforts of a large number of collaborators, this program has been successful. We report here on the significant amount of data that have been gathered on these five AGN over the entire electromagnetic spectrum, in particular on the exceptionally good optical and TeV coverage for this extended period of time.

Reference

Proceedings of the 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference; Rogelio Caballero, Juan Carlos D'Olivo, Gustavo Medina-Tanco, Lukas Nellen, Federico A. Sánchez, José F. Valdés-Galicia (eds.); Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico, 2008; Vol. 3 (OG part 2), pages 989-992