Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment: Difference Image Analysis of OGLE‐2000‐BUL‐43, a Spectacular Ongoing Parallax Microlensing Event

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We present the photometry and theoretical models for a Galactic bulge microlensing event, OGLE-2000-BUL-43. The event is very bright, with I = 13.54 mag, and has a very long timescale, tE = 156 days. The long timescale and its light curve deviation from the standard shape strongly suggest that it may be affected by the parallax effect. We show that OGLE-2000-BUL-43 is the first discovered microlensing event, in which the parallax distortion is observed over a period of 2 yr. Difference image analysis (DIA) using the PSF matching algorithm of Alard & Lupton enabled photometry accurate to 0.5%. All photometry obtained with DIA is available electronically. Our analysis indicates that the viewing condition from a location near Jupiter will be optimal and could lead to magnifications of ~50 around 2001 January 31. These features offer a great promise for resolving the source (a K giant) and breaking the degeneracy between the lens parameters, including the mass of the lens, if the event is observed with the imaging camera on the Cassini space probe.