possible GW event optical counterpart

[Robin Leadbeater]

Not quite sure where this fits but I will put it here

There have been some interesting GCN (Gamma ray Coordinates Network) circulars generated this afternoon.  It seems there may be gamma, optical and neutrino detections coincident with a Gravitational Wave Event (S190728q) detected earlier today.  All very preliminary but I thought it might be cool to image the possible optical counterpart if you have clear skies (at mag 19.8 it is too faint for me for a spectrum unfortunately)

The optical transient is AT2019lvs, well placed at 21:45:34.900 +20:41:26.10

https://wis-tns.weizmann.ac.il/object/2019lvs 

The GCN circulars can be found here 

https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3_archive.html

and the most relevant ones are 

25187, 25189, 25192, 25197, 25199, 21201

Cheers

Robin

[Nick James]

On a quick focus frame in a bright sky it appears to be 16.4 unfiltered now.

[Robin Leadbeater]

Update:

The optical transient AT2019lvs is now reported seen by PAN-STARRS 18 hours before the GW event. There is also a faint possible precursor visible on the SDSS image so most likely just a CV and not associated with the GW event see GCN 25204

https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/25204.gcn3

I also see that it is now reported outside the updated region of the sky

https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/25207.gcn3

and as I type, spectroscopic confirmation that it is indeed a CV

https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/25209.gcn3

so a false alarm this time I am afraid

Robin

[Nick James]

That’s a shame. Anyway, I have a deeper image here.

[Robin Leadbeater]

It turns out there is historic evidence from MASTER that AT2019lvs is a recurrent object with several historic outbursts 

https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/25216.gcn3

[Author]

Posts