Faulkes Monitoring of X-ray Binaries

For a discussion of this project, please see Lewis et al. 2008. As well as the FT (optical) monitoring as detailed below, data on XRBs are available from the following high energy missions.

Swift BAT

MAXI

SuperAGILE

Below are some light curves of XBs from the Faulkes Telescope North and South. If you are interested in using the data please email russell [at] iac.es or flewis [at] glam.ac.uk 

FT North Targets - sources are ordered by Right Ascension

** Some observations taken with FT South 

FT South Targets - sources are ordered by Right Ascension 

** Some observations taken with FT North

BH = Black Hole, BHC = Black Hole Candidate, IMXB = Intermediate-Mass X-Ray Binary, MQ = Microquasar,

AMXP = Accreting Milli-second X-ray Pulsar, NS = Neutron Star, ? = Unknown.

Other Sources 

LSI +61 303 has small, long-term variations and a tentative dip around the time of a SGR-like burst from that region. Our ATel on this is here.  

Here is the info for XTE J1856+053, which we did not detect.

Here is a page for our accepted VLA TOO of a millisecond X-ray pulsar. We were able to trigger from Feb 2008 - Feb 2009.  

Older Information

We've been monitoring GX 339-4 since 2007; throughout some mini-outbursts and a full outburst in 2010-2011. 

The new LMXB (possibly a neutron star system) MAXI J0556-332 is now also being monitored. See our ATel here.

The new transient Swift J1357.2-0933 is now also being monitored.

The new black hole transient IGR J17091-3624 is now also being monitored.

The black hole candidate LMXB MAXI J1659-152 is also being monitored. See our ATels here and here.

Here's an updated finding chart for the new black hole transient MAXI J1543-564 (see our initial ATel here).

The milli-second X-ray pulsar IGR J00291+5934 had a double peaked outburst in 2008. See our ATels here and here and our A&A publication here.

Outbursts of Aql X-1. See our ATels from September 2007 here, March 2009 here, November 2009 here and September 2010 here.

XTE J1752-223 is a new (2009) black hole transient; our monitoring produced this ATel. 

4U 1957+11: intrinsic variability present, which is correlated with the X-ray flux. This work has been published in MNRAS and is here.

We monitored the field of the faint X-ray transient XTE J1728-295 (IGR J17285-2922) to search for the optical counterpart; see our ATels here and here.

The milli-second X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 was also in outburst.

HETE J1900.1-2455 is in outburst

4U 1608-52 has had a number of outbursts

4U 0614+09 is persistent and variable

Sources in quiescence:

XTE J1118+480 shows variability in quiescence

GRS 1124-68 seems to have long-term variations in quiescence (de-reddened magnitudes)

V4641 Sgr shows band-correlated variability in quiescence

GRO J1655-40 shows band-correlated variability in quiescence

A0620-00: intrinsic variability present

GRO J0422+32: intrinsic variability present

XTE J1550-564: intrinsic variability present

XTE J1859+226: intrinsic variability present

V404 Cyg: intrinsic variability present

4U 1543-47 is not active at the moment

Cen X-4 is not active at the moment

GRS 1009-45 is not active at the moment

GS 1354-64 is not active at the moment

XTE J2123-058 is not active at the moment

GS 2000+25

H 1705-250