Matthew Allen – Faulkes Telescope Project

GX 339-4

Matthew Allen — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 13:06:55 +0000

We would like to acknowledge the following people and schools for helping in taking the observations of GX 339-4

Paulet High School, Burton-on-Trent
Leonor Cabral from Cascais, Portugal
Alison Tripp (Faulkes Telescope)
Vanessa Stroud (Faulkes Telescope, Open University)
Gina Lloyd (University of Glamorgan)
Edwin Russell

2017-2019 light curve

Long-term light curve

Papers to which we have contributed are “Overview of an extensive multi-wavelength study of GX 339-4 during the 2010 outburst” (Cadolle Bel et al., A&A) and “A Variable Mid-infrared Synchrotron Break Associated with the Compact Jet in GX 339-4” (Gandhi et al., ApJ).

Our ATels on GX339-4 are

#1586, #1962, #2270, #2459, #2547, #2573, #3191, #3383, #4162, #5252, #5594, #7434, #10797, #13024, #13113 #13264

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Observing a Supernova

Matthew Allen — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 10:09:56 +0000

We’re often used to observing stars in the night sky, but have you ever observed an exploding star? These objects, known as Supernovae, are some of the most energetic objects in the Universe. They’re so bright, that they can often outshine an entire galaxy!

The Evangelisches Gymnasium school in Lippstadt, German, led by Ronald Schuenecke, has been observing one such supernova with the Faulkes Telescopes. By observing the supernova over several days, they were able to watch the supernova when it was very bright at the beginning, before watching it become fainter over time as it lost its energy.

Observing supernovae is very easy to do with the Faulkes Telescope project, yet provides an incredible look at one of the most energetic events in the Universe. If you’d like to find out more about how to observe a supernova, you can get in touch via our Contact Form and we’ll be happy to guide you.

Faulkes Telescope Light Curves of MAXI J1659-152

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:56:24 +0000

See our ATels with the first optical results from Faulkes in September 2010 here and the fade towards quiescence in July 2011 here. Read the paper we contributed to by Corral-Santana et al., “The long-term optical evolution of the black hole candidate MAXI J1659-152” here.

Outburst i’-band images

Whole outburst light curve

Variability study on 2011-06-02

Variability study on 2010-09-26 (22 hours after the initial Swift trigger) and 2010-09-28

Variability study on 2010-10-05 (bad conditions)

Finding charts

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Faulkes Telescope Light Curves of GRO J1655-40

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:46:04 +0000

Faulkes Telescope South Light Curves of 4U 1608-52

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:39:33 +0000

See our ATels here and here. The long-term light curve below includes Swift BAT and RXTE ASM X-ray data.

Variability study on 2009-05-15: one 0.5 mag flare

Colour-magnitude diagram

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Faulkes Telescope Light Curves of XTE J1550-564

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:37:15 +0000

Read our Calvelo et al. paper, “Limits on the quiescent radio emission from the black hole binaries GRO J1655-40 and XTE J1550-564” here

The New Black Hole Transient MAXI J1543-564

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:35:53 +0000

Read our ATel here

Faulkes Telescope Light Curves of 4U 1543-47

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:34:47 +0000

Faulkes Telescope South light curve (2007 – 2011)

Faulkes Telescope Light Curves of Cen X-4

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:32:59 +0000

Faulkes Telescope South light curve (2008 – 2010)

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Faulkes Telescope Light Curves of GS 1354-64

Matthew Allen — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:13:18 +0000

Read our MNRAS paper, “A `high-hard’ outburst of the black hole X-ray binary GS 1354-64” here and our ATels here and here.

2015 Outburst light curve

Long-term light curve

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