SST-1M Collaboration meets in Ondrejov

On 15-16 December 2025, members of the SST-1M Collaboration gathered in Ondrejov, for the General Meeting hosted at the Astronomical Institute. The meeting covered a broad range of topics, from hardware status and telescope operations to analysis pipeline development, calibration, and simulation work. Collaboration members also shared recent scientific results from observations of several Galactic sources, together with the recent results of the blazar monitoring program. Looking ahead, significant attention was given to plans for the future relocation of the telescopes. Discussions included scientific perspectives for northern and southern sites, array layout optimization, and organizational and cost considerations. The Collaboration...

Increased high energy γ-ray activity of Mrk 421

[ SS1-1M Collaboration, 14. 1. 2026 ] The SST-1M Collaboration issued its second Astronomer’s Telegram (ATel #17597) on 14 January, reporting the detection of enhanced very-high-energy γ-ray activity from the nearby blazar Markarian 421 on 12 January 2026. Markarian 421 (Mrk 421 or Mkn 421) is one of the closest and brightest high-frequency peaked blazars at a redshift of z = 0.031, observed at very-high-energy (VHE; E ≳ 100 GeV) γ rays. Blazars are a class of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with relativistic jets ejected from the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) that are closely aligned with the observer’s line...