RXTE Galactic Center Observation

Commentary

Here is a report for the galactic bulge scans, Oct 25-30.

* The new bulge transient, XTE J1739-285, showed a re-energization.
  After two data points showing a decline from 770 to 660 ct/s/5PCU
  (2-13 keV), the next points have been in the 1500-2000 ct/s range.
  The most recent point of Oct 30 shows a decline.

  With the increase in source intensity, I have also produced a more
  refined source position, RA=264.9790, DEC=-28.4826, with an
  uncertainty of perhaps 5 arcmin.  The field is crowded enough that
  systematics probably dominate at this stage.

* 4U 1711-34 seems to be on the rise, up to 170 ct/s on Oct 30.  Its
  previous outburst finished in early April.

* I have seen several new bursts from the rapid burster, whose
  quiescent flux has essentially decayed to undetectable.

* 4U 1820-30 is now at the highest intensity of the past seven months,
  up to 5200 ct/s.

* GRS 1747-312 ( = Terzan 6 ) has reached its quiescent level. 

* CUTE: The full outburst of the very faint transient XTE J1734-234 is
  now shown on the web page (I went through and ran the whole analysis
  cycle again).  Very cool, since it was only 2 mCrab at peak.

In other news I have updated some of the analysis.

* Several of the bright sources now have independent fluxes for each
  scan: 4U 1820-30, GX 3+1 and GX 5-1.  New dates will appear with
  three digit precision to accomodate this.  In most cases, I think
  that these flux variations are real.

* I am now fitting the rapid burster and SLX 1744-300 bursts with
  simple exponential decline templates, and putting the peak fluxes in
  a separate light curve.  Look for the "B" at the end of the name for
  the fitted peak count rates.

* The third column, which has always read "Background", now has a
  newly defined meaning.  It used to mean, "diffuse background," and
  then a few weeks ago, a bug caused it to mean nothing at all.  NOW,
  it means "non-source" background.  This is the intensity of *any*
  other contaminating sources in the collimator field of view,
  including both diffuse and point-line components.

Finally, we are coming to the end of our (long!) observing season.
Next week the galactic bulge passes far enough into the sun exclusion
zone that scans are impossible.  We might try to do another one or two
single-source pointings, but otherwise that will be it until February
or so.

Cheers!

Craig

Known Sources: ASCII table

Scan Light Curve

	Legend -------------------------- 11 - XTE J1723-376 12 - EXO 1722-363 18 - 4U 1728-34 20 - RXS J173251.1 35 - XTE J1743-363 55 - A1744-361 59 - SLX 1746-331 61 - 4U 1746-371 72 - XTE J1756-342 103 - 4U 1820-30 105 - R 1832-330
	Legend -------------------------- 4 - 4U 1711-34 10 - RXS J172006.1 13 - RXS J172525.5 15 - TERZAN 2 18 - 4U 1728-34 22 - MXB 1730-33 23 - MXB 1730-33B 28 - IGR J17375-3022 31 - XTE J1739-302 36 - 1E1740.7-2942 38 - KS 1741-293 39 - GCRT J1745-3009 40 - EXO 1742-326 42 - 2S1742-294 45 - H1743-322 48 - SLX 1744-300 59 - SLX 1746-331 60 - 2E1746.7-3225 62 - SAXJ1750.8-2900 63 - GRS 1747-312 65 - XTE J1751-305 71 - XTE J1755-312 74 - XTE J1757-306 84 - XTE J1807-294 103 - 4U 1820-30 193 - MXB 1730-33B 196 - 4U 1820-30
	Legend -------------------------- 0 - RXJ1709.5-263 1 - XTE J1710-281 6 - IGR J17191-2821 7 - XTE J1719-291 10 - RXS J172006.1 14 - XTE J1726-283 15 - TERZAN 2 16 - XTE J1728-295 25 - KS 1731-260 27 - GRS 1734-292 28 - IGR J17375-3022 30 - SLX 1735-269 31 - XTE J1739-302 32 - XTE J1739-285 33 - SLX 1737-282 36 - 1E1740.7-2942 38 - KS 1741-293 39 - GCRT J1745-3009 41 - SGR A 42 - 2S1742-294 43 - GCRT J1746-2757 44 - 1E1743.1-2843 46 - SAXJ1747.0-2853 48 - SLX 1744-300 50 - XTE J1747-274 51 - GX 3+1 57 - AX J1749.1-2639 58 - IGR J17497-2821 62 - SAXJ1750.8-2900 68 - XTE J1752-280 77 - GX 5-1 78 - GRS 1758-258 93 - SAXJ1810.8-2609 101 - XTE J1819-254 104 - GS 1826-238 194 - GX 3+1 195 - GX 5-1
	Legend -------------------------- 0 - RXJ1709.5-263 3 - OPH CLU 19 - GX 1+4 21 - IGR J17331-2406 25 - KS 1731-260 37 - XTE J1744-230 67 - XTE J1752-223 75 - IGR J17586-2129 79 - GX 9+1 87 - RXS J180824.5 90 - SGR 1806-20 95 - XTE J1812-230 191 - GX 1+4 192 - GX 1+4 195 - GX 5-1

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