Proposal #713

Proposer	(3132) Gary Poyner (garypoyner@gmail.com) obscode: PYG
Assigned To	(3663) Dirk Terrell
Date Submitted	July 16, 2026
Status	Allocated
Priority	Normal
Proposal	Nightly 60 second exposures of BL Lac using V, B & R filters. Currently contributing to an observing programme coordinated by Dr. Mark KIdger (ESA). At the moment I am contributing visual and CCD CV data, but VBR filtered observations would be preferable.

Targets

Target Name	RA (H.HH)	Dec (D.DD)	Magnitude	Observation Frequency	Expiration Date	Proprietary Term
BL Lac	22.045278	42.27778	16.0–11.0	1	July 31, 2027	1 Year

Plans currently in place

bsm_nh2/AAVSO_P713_PYG_AUTO.csv

# $Id: AAVSO_P713_PYG_AUTO.csv 5919 2026-07-28 15:26:41Z MZK $
#PROPOSAL=713
#REQUESTER=PYG,,vphot
#target,hh,mm,ss.ss,dd,mm,ss.s,desc,priority,monitor,maxX,nrepeat,bin,[filter,exposure,nexp],[filter,exposure,nexp],,,,[filter,exposure,nexp]
BL_Lac,22,2,43,42,16,40,BL_Lac,50,1,2,1,1,B,60,3,V,60,3,R,60,3,I,60,3,EarliestTime=2026-07-16T00:00:00,LatestTime=2027-07-31T00:00:00

Comments

(3663) Dirk Terrell — July 25, 2026, 8:27 p.m.

Note the star 24" to the east when doing the photometry. The TAC requests that you add the I filter, so BVRI in total.

(4726) Kenneth Menzies — July 28, 2026, 3:28 p.m.

Gary: I gave you the exposures you requested although I suspect it is not best when faint. See what happens.

(4726) Kenneth Menzies — July 28, 2026, 3:29 p.m.

Gary, would you consider SR and SI on DSO35 along with B;V??

(3132) Gary Poyner — July 29, 2026, 7:31 a.m.

Kenneth,

Yes, SR and SI are fine. I use SR on DSO-35 for OJ287, and Kidger has worked out a correction to align with professional data Cousins R. He will no doubt do the same for BL Lac.

With regard to the exposure time. I’m not against increasing these, although for some time now BL Lac has been above magnitude 15, and I have found that 60 seconds gives acceptable errors. The B magnitude could be increased I guess to 90 seconds, so if you like to keep a certain symmetry to the exposures, by all means increase to 90.

Dirk,

I am aware of the star 24” to the East, but thanks anyway. I’m using a sequence provided by Kidger which he used on his professional work, and this includes an ‘I’ value, so no problems there.

Thanks guys!

(3132) Gary Poyner — Aug. 17, 2026, 10:44 a.m.

Ken,

I've received the first batch of images for BL Lac, but I'm not sure it's running on the best telescope. Large errors (0.1 and greater). Arne suggested bumping up the exposures to 3x180 seconds, and if that's not sufficent, then move to a larger telescope. I know there are currently problems with DSO-35, but if you could move this proposal to MPO-61 (or even DSO-35 and I'll wait until it's operational again), I would be very grateful.

Gary

Comments on this proposal are closed.