Publications (9)
Quasar Optical Variability in the Palomar-QUEST Survey
Anne Bauer, Charles Baltay, Paolo Coppi +4
The ensemble variability properties of nearly 23,000 quasars are studied using the Palomar-QUEST Survey. The survey has covered 15,000 square degrees multiple times over 3.5 years…
The Mass-Richness Relation of MaxBCG Clusters from Quasar Lensing Magnification using Variability
Anne H. Bauer, Charles Baltay, Nancy Ellman +3
Accurate measurement of galaxy cluster masses is an essential component not only in studies of cluster physics, but also for probes of cosmology. However, different mass measuremen…
Measuring Lensing Magnification of Quasars by Large Scale Structure using the Variability-Luminosity Relation
Anne H. Bauer, Stella Seitz, Jonathan Jerke +4
We introduce a technique to measure gravitational lensing magnification using the variability of type I quasars. Quasars' variability amplitudes and luminosities are tightly correl…
Blazar Optical Variability in the Palomar-QUEST Survey
Anne Bauer, Charles Baltay, Paolo Coppi +4
We study the ensemble optical variability of 276 FSRQs and 86 BL Lacs in the Palomar-QUEST Survey with the goal of searching for common fluctuation properties, examining the range…
La Silla-QUEST Variability Survey in the Southern Hemisphere
Ellie Hadjiyska, David Rabinowitz, Charles Baltay +6
We describe the La Silla-QUEST (LSQ) Variability Survey. LSQ is a dedicated wide-field synoptic survey in the Southern Hemisphere, focussing on the discovery and study of transient…
The QUEST Data Processing Software Pipeline
Peter Andrews, Charles Baltay, Anne Bauer +5
A program that we call the QUEST Data Processing Software Pipeline has been written to process the large volumes of data produced by the QUEST camera on the Samuel Oschin Schmidt T…
The QUEST Large Area CCD Camera
Charlie Baltay, David Rabinowitz, Peter Andrews +17
We have designed, constructed and put into operation a very large area CCD camera that covers the field of view of the 1.2 m Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope at the Palomar Observat…
Highly Variable Objects in the Palomar-QUEST Survey: A Blazar Search using Optical Variability
Anne Bauer, Charles Baltay, Paolo Coppi +11
We identify 3,113 highly variable objects in 7,200 square degrees of the Palomar-QUEST Survey, which each varied by more than 0.4 magnitudes simultaneously in two broadband optical…
A statistical analysis of circumstellar material in Type Ia supernovae
Kate Maguire, Mark Sullivan, Ferdinando Patat +42
A key tracer of the elusive progenitor systems of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is the detection of narrow blueshifted time-varying Na I D absorption lines, interpreted as evidence o…