Observational Campaigns

The Hamburg quasar monitoring programm was planned in 1987/88. In 1988 the first two test campaigns at the 1.23m telescope at Calar Alto were done. Regular observations started from May 1989.

A typical campaign lasted between 3 and 8 nights followed by a gap of 3 to 5 weeks. Unfortunately this time schedule could not been hold throughout the lifetime of HQM until its general end in 1995. In 1989 and 1990 some technical defects with the cameras produced longer gaps and in 1992 the 1.23m was nearly one year out of operation. In 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001 some capaigns were added to follow the long term behaviour of several lightcurves.

Other observational campaigns enlarged the HQM database:

• Quasar observations in 1984 at the ESO 2.2m, 1985 and 1986 at the Calar Alto 2.2m (Schramm).
• An extensive campaign in 1986 at the Calar Alto 2.2m to find the time delay in 0957+561 (Double quasar) (Borgeest, Schramm)
• Muliple slit photometry with the cluster around 0957+561 at the 3.5m Calar Alto (1990) (Borgeest, Schramm, Vanderriest)
• A campaign to find microlensing events in 2237+0305 (Einstein cross) at the 2.2m Calar Alto telescope. (Schramm)
• Campaigns to find evidence for an amplification bias from fields with quasar-galaxy associations. (v.Linde, Schramm) 3.5m calar Alto and 2.7m NOT-La Palma. (1990,1991)
• A campaign to analyze southern blazars with the ESO 90cm Dutch telescope (1992) (Schramm)
• An observational campaign at the 6m BAT telescope in Caucasus, March 1994 (v.Linde, Schramm).
• From the collaboration with the the ESO keyproject group searching for gravitational lenses (Surdej, Swings, Margain et al.) all CCD frames for objects identical with the HQM target list were newly reduced with the HQM procedure. (1985 to 1993)
• From cooperations with colleagues we received by chance around 200 additional frames from our sample (Hopp, Wagner, Heidt, Notni).
• Two campaigns in September 1994 and January/February 1995 had been carried out in an international cooperation to find short time intraday variabilities. In this "joint optical monitoring programm for quasars" (JOMPQ)(Schramm, Bian) groups around the globe worked together: China (2m telescope at Xinlong, China (Bian), 1m Yunan telescope in Kunming, China (Xie)), 1m telescope in Shghai, China (Sun), Russia (1m telescope at SAO (Neizvestny), 60cm at Crimea observatory (Lyuty ), Bulgaria (2m telescope (Mihov)), Germany (70 cm telescope at LSW-Heidelberg (Wagner), 1.23m telscope at Calar Alto (Schramm), 2.2m at ESO (Heidt)), Finland (2.7m NOT telescope on La Palma (Sillanpää)), Poland (CTIO, ( )), Mexico (San Pedro, (Dultzin-Hacayan)).
• From this international cooperation B. Mihov at 2m Rozchen, Bulgaria performed several observations in 1994 to 1996.
• As one of the arly selection criteria for the target list had been OVV or blazar membership we had 4 campaigns lasting up to 5 weeks where these candidates were observed every night. These observations were done at the 1.23m and the 2.2m at calar Alto (Schramm, Borgeest, v. Linde)

HQM was planned to run at least for 5 years or even longer. Soon after the first years it became evident that for several lightcurves the observational schedule had to be much closer and for some weak objects the 1.23m telescope was not powerful enough. An initiative to establish an automatic quasar monitoring telscope was not fruitful. A sudden financial drawback finished HQM abruptly in 1995 and many reductions remained unpublished, unfortunately even the very successful JOMPQ campaigns.

B,V,U photometr.

HQM-Results- 1