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The optical variability of selected blazars

  • III. Optical Variability Studies
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Active Galactic Nuclei

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 307))

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Abstract

The optical variability of a small number of BL Lacertae objects and OVV quasars have been monitored from 1972 to the present time. Major long term trends in their brightness have been observed with total amplitudes sometimes as large as 5.0 magnitudes detected as in the case of OJ 287. These variations have been observed to occur on the timescales of years. The nature of shorter term variations with amplitudes from 0.5 – 2.0 magnitudes on timescales of days to months have also been observed and investigated. An extensive effort has been made to investigate the possibility of significant optical variations which might occur on timescales much shorter than one day. Observations have been obtained which conclusively demonstrate that short-term, small amplitude variations occur frequently for BL Lacertae. An investigation of a number of other members of this class of objects has also revealed this type of optical activity to be present.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, USA

    H. Richard Miller

Authors
  1. H. Richard Miller
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H. Richard Miller Paul J. Wiita

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© 1988 Springer-Verlag

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Miller, H.R. (1988). The optical variability of selected blazars. In: Miller, H.R., Wiita, P.J. (eds) Active Galactic Nuclei. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 307. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-19492-4_187

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-19492-4_187

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19492-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39304-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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