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Dr. Webb and his student Gopal Bhatta conceived of using the
whole Earth Blazar telescope to continuously monitor a particularly
interesting Blazar for more than 24 hours. Previously the light
output is monitored and analyzed for small variations, but the
timescales for these variations were on the order of a single
night! Thus one telescope could never observe it long enough to
get a complete enough light curve because of sunrise! So we
contacted the WEBT group and enlisted the aid of 35 observers from 15
countries around the world. The target dates were February 22,
23, 24, and 25. The SARA telescope was used by Webb and Bhatta
and that data is now being added to significant observations from
around the world to achieve a light curve stretching for 30 continuous
hours. Not only that, but several data sets overlapped and some
were done with different filters giving the researchers color changes
as well as brightness changes. As the data continues to roll in,
Bhatta and Webb are processing it and cataloging it. The goal of
the research is to investigate the nature of the brightness
fluctuations (microvariability) and infer the properties of the
underlying relativistic jets that eminate from the massive black hole
central engine. So far data from 8 different countries has been
received. For more information, check out: http://www.oato.inaf.it/blazars/webt/webb.html
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