Conveners
Optical: Optical 1
- Ludwig Rauch (DESY)
After 5 years of polarimetric monitoring of blazars, the RoboPol project has uncovered several key characteristics of polarimetric rotations in the optical for these most variable sources. The most important of these is that polarization properties of the synchrotron emission in the optical appear to be directly linked with gamma-ray activity. I will discuss the evidence for this connection,...
The prototype blazar BL Lac is monitored in the frame of the Blazar Optical Sky Survey (BOSS) Project at the University of Athens Observatory (UOAO), during the period of 2014-2018. BL Lac is continuously observed on a daily basis, in order to achieve dense temporal coverage in optical wavelengths, and study the short time-scale flux variability. Several long-runs have been conducted, where...
ATOM is an optical telescope located at the H.E.S.S. site in Namibia. It monitors optical flux of roughly 300 known gamma-ray emitters. In the beginning of 2018, a new instrument has been installed with the aim of enhancing the capabilities of ATOM – including measuring sub-second variability and polarisation. I will give a short overview of the new instrument's design and present first results.
