Dear ASCA users, It was reported from GRO EGRET observations that 3C279 is now undergoing an extremely bright outburst (see below). According to the request of a TOO observation of the outburst sent from Ann Wehrle, Professor F. Makino has proposed to perform an ASCA TOO observation. Since the outburst is brightest since 1991 and ASCA visibility of the source is soon gone on January 30, we decided to install a 20 ksec TOO observation of 3C279 on January 27 by reducing XY Ari observation (JPN, PI; Ishida) from 80 ksec to 60 ksec. The lack of 20 ksec for XY Ari will be supplemented later. The revised short term schedule is attached below. F. Nagase ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jan 96 14:19:42 EST From: rch@puccini.gsfc.nasa.gov (Bob Hartman) Subject: 3C 279 gamma flare Cc: rch@puccini.gsfc.nasa.gov Status: R I just want to let all of you know that during the first 5+ days of the current EGRET observation (16-21 Jan), 3C 279 was quite bright, about half the average flux during the June 1991 flare. Since that exceeds the trigger threshold for the ToO extension, a ToO has been declared to extend the observation for one additional week, to 6 Feb. I know many of you have been corresponding already with Ann Wehrle about your concurrent 3C 279 observations in other wavelengths. If there are others who would like to join in, please contact Ann (aew@ipac.caltech.edu) or myself with details. Regards, Bob ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A S C A WEEKLY OBSERVATION PLAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- January 20Ê - February 1, 1996: Ver-Ê3 (revised Jan.25) (ISAS contact scientist: T. KII, kii@astro.isas.ac.jp) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date MNV Target Tag. Exp. Observation PI or start name Cat. (ks) Cat. Pri./TC ( PPI/Co-PI) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/20 9:00 GRB940217 CXB 40 JPN 1/n A. Yoshida 1/21 8:40 CTB1 West SNR 60 MUJ 1/n O. Vancura/TBD 1/22 18:20 CTB1 NE SNR 40 MUJ 1/n O. Vancura/TBD 1/23 17:50 Abell 1914 CG 40 JPN 1/n S. Miyoshi 1/24 19:40 3C303 (AO3 suppl) AGN 19 JPN 1/n H. Inoue 1/25 8:20 CTA1 Center SNR 40 MUJ 1/n P. Slane /H. Tsunemi 1/26 8:10 GX 301-2 NA flare Bin. 30 US 2/Y S. Pravdo 1/27 6:50 PKS0208-512 #2 AGN 10 USJ 2/Y J. Stacy 1/27 12:50 3C279 AGN 20 JPN TOO (F. Nagase) /ASCA-team 1/27 4:50 XY Ari CV 60 JPN 1/n M. Ishida 1/29 17:30 XY Ari (AO3 suppl) CV 6 MUJ 1/n E. Schlegel /M. Ishida 1/29 23:00 SN 1986J SNR 70 US 1/n J. Bregman ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Note) Obs. Cat. JPN: Japan time, US: US time, JUS: Japan-US Collaboration, USJ: US-Japan Collaboration, MJU: Merged Japan-US (PPI=Japan), MUJ: Merged US-Japan (PPI=US), ESJ: ESA-Japan Program, MUE: Merged US-ESJ (PPI=US), MEU: Merged ESJ-US (PPI=ESJ) MOT: Manager's observatory time