PAIRITEL Observations of IGRJ00291+5934

Images Caption: False-color composite infrared image of the field of IGRJ00291+5934 from Dec 9 UT. The image is centered on the proposed IR counterpart and is about 6.6 arcmin on a side. North is up and East to the left. Caption: JHK blow-up near the IR counterpart to IGRJ00291+5934 from Dec 8 UT. Though the source was entered into the object database by hand, the IGR data were obtained completely autonomously, with the observations scheduled by the PAIRITEL system through the optimization scheme. The frames were automatically reduced, mosaiced, and registered by the PAIRITEL reduction suite. North is up and East to the left. Formats TIFF 804x748 | 1.8M GIF 804x748 | 132k Formats GIF 748x315 | 2.2M PS.GZ 1600x1200 | 828k Credit: Joshua Bloom (Harvard/UC Berkeley), Cullen Blake (Harvard), Dan Starr (Gemini) Credit: Joshua Bloom (Harvard/UC Berkeley), Cullen Blake (Harvard), Dan Starr (Gemini)

IGR J00291+5934 : IR counterpart detection and evidence of fading

D. Steeghs, C. Blake, J. S. Bloom, M. Torres, P.Jonker
(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), D. Starr (Gemini, Hawaii):

We report on the detection of IGR J00291+5934 (ATEL #352) at infrared
wavelengths using the 1.3m robotic PAIRITEL telescope
(http://pairitel.org) on Mt. Hopkins, AZ.

The IR counterpart for the accreting pulsar was detected on 2004 Dec 8
05:15 UT under cloudy conditions with PAIRITEL. Using nearby 2MASS
comparison stars, we find preliminary magnitudes of J=16.8 +/- 0.1,
H=16.8 +/- 0.3, K=16.1 +/- 0.2. Additional observations on Dec 9
01:35 and 03:20 UT suggest the source may have dropped in brightness
in the IR between Dec 8 and Dec 9.

The source was also observed on 2004 Dec 9 02:46 - 03:02 with the FLWO
1.2m telescope on Mt. Hopkins as part of the CfA ToO program on X-ray
Novae/transients.  Using nearby GSC stars as reference, we find R=18.3 +/-
0.4 mag.  The source appears to have faded significantly since the optical
counterpart was announced on Dec 4 (ATEL #354), supporting the apparent
decrease in brightness observed at IR wavelengths.

Weather permitting, we will continue to monitor the source at optical
and IR wavelengths.

Images are available at http://pairitel.org/IGRJ00291_5934

Last modified: Thu Dec 9 15:26:17 EST 2004