Blazars
A blazar is a quasar with its jet pointed straight at us. As we look down the jet we
see tremendous
bursts of energy (like a flickering flashlight aimed straight in the eyes).
"Viscious Little Dots"
Blazars are enigmatic objects. They are variable on all time scales from seconds to
years. There has been no discovered periodicity in blazars. Even their classification is not yet firmly defined. Most
blazars are also called "BL Lac objects", but not all!
They are some of the most energetic events in the Universe. They are so bright and so far away that we are looking at
light that is billions of years old. One of the unique aspects of blazars is that they emit energy all across the
spectrum so they are one of the few objects that astronomers can study at all wavelengths at the same time.
The
AAVSO has teamed up with the GLAST Telescope Network (GTN) to monitor blazars
in support of the upcoming GLAST
mission. Long term monitoring will begin immediately to setup a baseline of data. Then when GLAST is launched we will
continue to monitor to notify GLAST of flares and also coordinate observations with GLAST for multiwavelength
correlation.
Both visual and CCD observations are needed!
Over the next year (2003) the network will be setup. An alert system similar to the GRB
network will be established, new charts made, and some other blazar-specific tools will be developed for the web
site. Until then, get started by observing BL
Lac, W Com, Mark 421 and PKS0716.