@article{ArchambaultArlenAuneetal.2013, author = {Archambault, S. and Arlen, T. and Aune, T. and Behera, B. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Bird, R. and Bouvier, A. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Byrum, K. and Cesarini, A. and Ciupik, L. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Federici, Simone and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gall, D. and Gillanders, G. H. and Griffin, S. and Grube, J. and Gyuk, G. and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Kaaret, P. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krawczynski, H. and Krennrich, F. and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Madhavan, A. S. and Maier, G. and Majumdar, P. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and de Bhroithe, A. O'Faolain and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Saxon, D. B. and Sembroski, G. H. and Smith, A. W. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Theiling, M. and Varlotta, A. and Vassiliev, V. V. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Weekes, T. C. and Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B. and Boettcher, Markus and Fegan, S. J. and Fortin, P. and Halpern, J. P. and Kovalev, Y. Y. and Lister, M. L. and Liu, J. and Pushkarev, A. B. and Smith, P. S.}, title = {Discovery of a new tev Gamma-Ray source - VER J0521+211}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {776}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, organization = {VERITAS Collaboration}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/776/2/69}, pages = {10}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We report the detection of a new TeV gamma-ray source, VER J0521+211, based on observations made with the VERITAS imaging atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope Array. These observations were motivated by the discovery of a cluster of >30 GeV photons in the first year of Fermi Large Area Telescope observations. VER J0521+211 is relatively bright at TeV energies, with a mean photon flux of (1.93 +/- 0.13(stat) +/- 0.78(sys)) x 10(-11) cm(-2) s(-1) above 0.2 TeV during the period of the VERITAS observations. The source is strongly variable on a daily timescale across all wavebands, from optical to TeV, with a peak flux corresponding to similar to 0.3 times the steady Crab Nebula flux at TeV energies. Follow-up observations in the optical and X-ray bands classify the newly discovered TeV source as a BL Lac-type blazar with uncertain redshift, although recent measurements suggest z = 0.108. VER J0521+211 exhibits all the defining properties of blazars in radio, optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths.}, language = {en} } @article{BenbowBirdBrilletal.2019, author = {Benbow, W. and Bird, R. and Brill, A. and Brose, Robert and Chromey, A. J. and Daniel, M. K. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Gillanders, G. H. and Giuri, C. and Gueta, O. and Hanna, D. and Halpern, J. P. and Hassan, Tarek and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Joyce, Amy M. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kelley-Hoskins, N. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, D. and Krause, M. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and Maier, Gernot and Matthews, N. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Nievas-Rosillos, M. and Ong, R. A. and Park, N. and Petrashyk, A. and Pohl, Martin and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, John and Ragan, K. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Rulten, C. and Sadeh, Iftach and Santander, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Sushch, Iurii and Wakely, S. P. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, David A. and Williamson, T. J.}, title = {Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters by the VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes}, series = {Nature astronomy}, volume = {3}, journal = {Nature astronomy}, number = {6}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {2397-3366}, doi = {10.1038/s41550-019-0741-z}, pages = {511 -- 516}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The angular size of a star is a critical factor in determining its basic properties1. Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters is difficult: at interstellar distances stars are generally too small to resolve by any individual imaging telescope. This fundamental limitation can be overcome by studying the diffraction pattern in the shadow cast when an asteroid occults a star2, but only when the photometric uncertainty is smaller than the noise added by atmospheric scintillation3. Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes used for particle astrophysics observations have not generally been exploited for optical astronomy due to the modest optical quality of the mirror surface. However, their large mirror area makes them well suited for such high-time-resolution precision photometry measurements4. Here we report two occultations of stars observed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS)5 Cherenkov telescopes with millisecond sampling, from which we are able to provide a direct measurement of the occulted stars' angular diameter at the ≤0.1 mas scale. This is a resolution never achieved before with optical measurements and represents an order of magnitude improvement over the equivalent lunar occultation method6. We compare the resulting stellar radius with empirically derived estimates from temperature and brightness measurements, confirming the latter can be biased for stars with ambiguous stellar classifications.}, language = {en} }