Optical monitoring in southern blazars. Analysis of variability and spectral colour behaviours

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We present the results of the optical monitoring of 18 southern blazars in the V and R Johnson–Cousins bands. Our main objective is to study the variations in the optical flux and their relationship with the colour and spectral variabilities. The optical observations were acquired with the 2.15 m ‘Jorge Sahade’ telescope, CASLEO, Argentina. The whole campaign comprised from 2014 April to 2019 September. In addition, X-ray data were taken from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Swift/XRT databases, and γ-ray data were taken from the Fermi-Large Area Telescope 3FGL catalogue. From the total of 18 blazars, we found variability in each one of the time-scales considered for 6 blazars (PKS 0208–512, PKS 1116–46, PKS 1440–389, PKS 1510–089, PKS 2005–489, and PKS 2155–304). In particular, from the colour–magnitude and the multiwavelength analysis, we found that PKS 1510-089 (flat-spectrum radio quasar) is undergoing an activity phase. For the case of PKS 2005–489 (BL Lac), this blazar is in a quiescent state, in which it has been for more than a decade, and it is compatible with its bluer-when-brighter moderate tendency, possibly due to the presence of shocks within the jet.