Related papers: Achromatic variability in the BL Lac object PKS 21…
We present an analysis of the anomalous microlensing event, MOA-2010-BLG-073, announced by the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics survey on 2010-03-18. This event was remarkable because the source was previously known to be…
The bright, strongly variable BL Lac object PKS 2155-304 was observed by XMM for two essentially uninterrupted periods of ~11 and 16 hr on 30-31 May 2000. The strongest variations occurred in the highest energy bands. After scaling for this…
PKS 2155--304 is one of the brightest blazars in the X-ray band. It was repeatedly monitored with BeppoSax during three long campaigns of about 2 days each in November of 1996, 1997 and 1999. The source underwent different states of…
We present a detailed investigation of the flaring activity observed from a BL Lac object, S5 0716+714 , during its brightest ever optical state in the second half of January 2015. Observed almost simultaneously in the optical, X-rays and…
We present an analysis of the microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0232. This event is challenging to characterize for two reasons. First, the light curve is not well sampled during the caustic crossing due to the proximity of the full Moon…
Among active galactic nuclei, blazars show extreme variability properties. We here investigate the case of the BL Lac object S4 0954+65 with data acquired in 2019-2020 by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and by the Whole…
We explored the statistical properties of short-term X-ray variability using long-exposure {\it XMM-Newton} data during high X-ray variability phases of blazars S5 0716+714 and PKS 2155-304. In general, hardness ratio shows correlated…
We present the main results of the first long-term spectrophotometric monitoring of the ``Einstein cross'' Q2237+0305 and of the single-epoch spectra of the lensed quasar J1131-1231. From October 2004 to December 2006, we find that two…
We present a focused X-ray and multiwavelength study of the ultraluminous weak-line quasar (WLQ) SDSS J1521+5202, one of the few X-ray weak WLQs that is amenable to basic X-ray spectral and variability investigations. J1521+5202 shows…
We examine the 2008-2016 $\gamma$-ray and optical light curves of three bright BL Lac objects, 0716+714, MRK 421, BL Lac, which exhibit large structured variability. We searched for periodicities by using a fully Bayesian approach. For two…
We conduct a systematic investigation of the microlensing data collected during the previous observation seasons for the purpose of reanalyzing anomalous lensing events with no suggested plausible models. We find that two anomalous lensing…
We explore the possibility of attributing the recent discovery of the hard X-ray variable source CXOM82 J095550.2+694047 in M82 to the gravitational magnification by an intervening stellar obeject along the line of sight as microlens. The…
There are two possible causes of variability in gravitationally lensed quasars: intrinsic fluctuations of the quasar and ``microlensing'' by compact objects along the line of sight. If disentangled from each other, microlens-induced…
We present X-ray spectral analysis of five Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the gravitationally-lensed blazar PKS1830-211 from 2000 to 2004. We show that the X-ray absorption toward PKS1830-211 is variable, and the variable absorption…
Optical polarization of seven selected BL Lac objects in UBVRI bands was studied with the Nordic Optical Telescope from December 10-14, 1999. Two of them, 3C 66A and PKS 0735+178, were monitored for 4 nights for a total integration time of…
We search OGLE-I photometric database for stars, which, as defined by formal criteria adopted by OGLE-I microlensing search, showed variability during only one out of 3 or 4 observing seasons. The results include 17 previously reported…
We present the historic light curve of the BL Lac object S5 0716+714, spanning the time interval from 1953 to 2003, built using Asiago archive plates and our recent CCD observations, together with literature data. The source shows an…
We present new UBV photometric observations (2009-2024) of the carbon-rich post-AGB star IRAS 22272+5435 (V354 Lac), combined with our data spanning over 30 years (1991-2024). The star shows pulsations with two closely spaced periods, 127…
The BL Lac object Mkn~421 was observed three times by the X-ray observatory BeppoSAX in consecutive days during 1997 April and May. The source was in a quiescent state, with an average 2-10 keV flux of 9.0 x 10^(-11) erg/cm/cm/s. Flux…
This paper presents light curves and the first systematic characterization of variability of the 106 objects in the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Bright AGN Sample (LBAS). Weekly light curves obtained during the first 11 months of survey…