TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 36304 SUBJECT: S240422ed: MeerLICHT/BlackGEM photometry on AT2024hfx and archival ZTF detection DATE: 24/04/25 15:00:51 GMT FROM: Paul Groot at Radboud University Nijmegen P.J. Groot (Radboud, UCT, SAAO), H. Tranin (Barcelona), H. Wichern (DTU), G. Leloudas (DTU), F. Stoppa (Radboud), I. Arcavi (Tel Aviv), S. Bloemen (Radboud), P.M. Vreeswijk (Radboud), D. Pieterse (Radboud) report on behalf of the BlackGEM/MeerLICHT Consortium: Following the LVK Alert S240422ed the 0.6m BlackGEM/MeerLICHT telescope array located at the ESO La Silla, Chile and SAAO Sutherland, South Africa observatories observed the error box with the ML1/BG2/BG4 telescopes using a predefined sky-grid tiling that covers the accessible part of the error region using the ranked-tiling method as outlined in Ghosh et al. (2016). Observations were obtained in the q band, spanning 440-720nm, using a 2x10-tile strategy. Starting with the highest probability tiles a set of 10-tiles was observed in the q-band filter using 60s exposures each, which was repeated directly after the first 10 tiles were observed. Subsequently tiles 11-20 were observed in the same two-visit manner, etc. Observations on the Updated error region of S240422ed (Biscoveanu et al., GCN Circular 36240) were repeated on the nights of 2024-04-23 and 2024-04-24 following the same tiling pattern. Transient candidates were extracted using the BlackBOX/ZOGY pipeline, where astrophotometric calibrations are performed using Gaia DR3 photometry and astrometry. Possible asteroids are filtered using the daily-updated lists of known asteroids from the Minor Planet Center. All coordinates are given in the ICRS, epoch J2016.0 astrometric frame and magnitudes quoted are on the AB system. We report the following detections on the candidate AT2024hfx, which was reported to the Transient Name Server by the PanSTARRS collaboration (Chambers et al. 2024, TNS alert 208432). Name RA (ICRS) Dec(ICRS) Filter AB-Mag Date-UT MLTJ081941.58-172807.2 124.92321 -17.46874 q 18.243+/-0.06 2024-04-24 19:10:16 MLTJ081941.58-172807.2 124.92321 -17.46874 q 18.311+/-0.07 2024-04-24 19:24:26 BGEMJ081941.57-172807.4 124.92323 -17.46869 q 18.546+/-0.07 2024-04-25 00:08:05 BGEMJ081941.57-172807.4 124.92323 -17.46869 q 18.497+/-0.07 2024-04-25 00:23:14 The last non-detection at this position was obtained on 2024-04-07 00:38:21 in the i-band with a 5-sigma point-source transient limiting magnitude at the position of the source of i>18.91 It was pointed out to us by G. Hosseinzadeh that at the position of AT2024hfx, there is a single, but clear archival detection in ZTF as ZTF21aawlmgc on 2021-04-19 03:52:10 at g=19.035 +/- 0.165. Although classified as 'bogus' in the ZTF Stamp Classifier the position coincides with AT2024hfx. The BlackGEM/MeerLICHT telescopes are designed, installed and operated by a consortium of the following universities and institutions: Radboud University, Netherlands Research School for Astronomy NOVA, KU Leuven, Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, South African Astronomical Observatory, Technical University of Denmark, Tel Aviv University, Texas Tech University, University of Amsterdam, University of Barcelona, University of California at Davis, University of Cape Town, University of Durham, University of Hamburg, University of Manchester, University of Oxford, University of Potsdam, University of Valparaiso, University of Warwick, Weizmann Institute References: Ghosh et al., 2016, A&A 592, 82