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S.D. Bloom (Hampden-Sydney College), D.A. Dale (Caltech/JPL)
Most of the sources discovered by the EGRET instrument (detection at 100 MeV-10 GeV) onboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (1991-2000) remain unidentified with sources at any other wavelength. Most objects in or near the Galactic plane are likely to be within our Galaxy, and are extremely difficult to identify, due to source confusion at many wavelengths. However, sources above the Galactic plane are more likely to be extragalactic and are less hampered by source confusion. In fact, of the positively identified gamma-ray sources, most are blazars (highly variable, radio loud active galaxies and quasars) at mid to high Galatic latitude. In this study we attempt to identify high latitude EGRET gamma-ray sources with optical sources, using the Palomar 60-inch. Those optical sources which are variable, and also identified with a fairly strong and variable radio source are considered to be the best candidate identifications for the gamma-ray source. We present prelimnary results here, and in a follow on study we will study the best candidates spectroscopically to determine whether they are indeed blazars.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: sbloom@hsc.edu