GCN Circular 36304

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
Not found
 
 
) 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
Not found
 
 
, 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
Not found
 
 
, 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
Not found
 
 
.

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