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M. Boettcher, M. Joshi (Ohio University), G. Fossati, I. A. Smith (Rice University), R. Mukherjee, D. Bramel (Columbia University), W. Cui (Purdue University), WEBT Collaboration
The radio-selected BL Lac object 3C66A was the target of an intensive multiwavelength observing campaign in the last quarter of 2003 and early 2004. It was monitored by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) collaboration of optical observers, in tandem with 20 X-ray monitoring observations by the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), VHE gamma-ray observations by STACEE and VERITAS, and long-term monitoring at radio frequencies. In addition, 9 high-spatial-resolution observations using the VLA are being carried out during the campaign and throughout the year 2004 to follow possible structural changes of the source. A gradual brightening of the source over the course of the campaign was observed at all optical frequencies, culminating in a very bright flare at the end of January 2004. Optical light curves indicate intraday microvariability on time scales down to about 1.3 hours. No significant color-magnitude correlation for the entire data set was evident, but there is a slight indication of a hardness - intensity anti-correlation on intraday time scales. The X-ray spectrum is consistent with a power-law with a photon spectral index of ~2.1, indicating that the RXTE energy band might be located right at the intersection of the synchrotron and the high-energy emission components of the broadband spectral energy distribution. No significant flux or spectral variability at X-ray energies was detected. We extracted snapshot spectral energy distributions at various times throughout the campaign, and present first spectral fits to those SEDs.
This work was partially supported by NASA RXTE GO grant no. NNG 04GB13G.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mboett@helios.phy.ohiou.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.