J/AJ/133/2866ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/133/2866doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.51332866CDSKartaltepe J.S.Balonek T.J.2017-06-28T06:58:47Z2009-09-10T03:05:55ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frquasarsphotometryDuring 2001-2002 the optically violent variable blazar 3C 279 underwent the most intense outburst seen during the entire 14yr period that this quasar has been studied at Colgate University's Foggy Bottom Observatory. This study concentrates on ~1600 R-filter images taken during this period of activity. This data set includes 29 nights of microvariability coverage. The outburst began in 2001 March, after 3C 279 had faded to its faintest level, R=15.5, in 4yr. The source reached its brightest level, R=12.5, in the 14yr of our study in 2001 August, at which time it became unobservable due to its proximity to the Sun. On becoming observable again in 2001 mid-December, 3C 279 fluctuated between R=13.9 and 14.7, until a dramatic decrease in flux level in 2002 June-July brought the source back down to a level comparable to its preoutburst state. The source exhibited numerous week-long flares of approximately 1mag during the outburst period. Superposed on these flares were night-to-night variations of up to 0.5mag and intranight microvariability of up to 0.13mag in 3hr. We use visual inspection of the light curve, as well as numerical timescale analysis tools (the autocorrelation function, the structure function, and the power spectrum), to characterize the multiple timescales of variability ranging from 1.5yr to several hours.2007AJ....133.2866Khttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/133/2866CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic servicehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/133/2866https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/133/2866http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/133/2866https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/AJ/133/2866https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/AJ/133/2866http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/AJ/133/2866GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapOpticaldefaultJ/AJ/133/2866/table1Microvariability Coverage MeasurementsrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintObsUT Date of the observationtime.epoch;obsnullableRmagThe R band magnitudemagphot.mag;em.opt.Rfloate_RmagError in Rmagmagstat.error;phot.mag;em.opt.Rfloat