Multiwavelength Observations of 1ES 1959+650 in 2003, One Year After the Strong 2002 Outburst
Résumé
In April-May 2003, the blazar 1ES 1959+650 showed a very high level of X-ray activity. The 2-12 keV fluxes measured with the RXTE All Sky Monitor exceeded 10 mCrab for a number of days. This prompted a multiwavelength campaign of observations including triggering ToO pointed RXTE observations. RXTE observations totaling 33.7 ksec from May 2, 2003 to June 7, 2003 were complemented by TeV γ -ray observations taken with the Whipple 10m Cerenkov telescope, radio observations taken with the UMRAO radio telescope and optical observations taken at the Bordeaux optical observatory. While the X-ray flares were of intermediate amplitude, from 0.63 keV-1 cm-2 s-1 to 0.75 keV-1 cm-2 s-1 at 10 keV, observations did not result in the firm detection of any TeV flares. We will present the radio, optical, X-ray and TeV γ -ray observations taken during 2003 and compare them with earlier results from the years 2000 and 2002. Finally, we present fits of a Synchrotron Self-Compton model to the data. This work was supported by the DOE, NSF, and NASA (grant NAG 13770). UMRAO is partially supported by funds from the Michigan Dept. of Astronomy.