EROS 2 intensive observation of the caustic crossing of microlensing event MACHO SMC-98-1

Abstract

We report on intensive photometric monitoring on 18 June 1998 of MACHO SMC-98-1, a binary-lens microlensing event seen toward the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The observations cover 5.3 hours (UT 5:17 -- 10:37), and show a sharp drop of 1.8 mag during the first 1.8 hours, followed by an abrupt flattening at UT 7:08 +- 0:02. We interpret the kink at 7:08 as the end of the second caustic crossing (when the source first moved completely outside the caustic). These results indicate that mu sin(phi) <~ 1.5 km/s/kpc at the 2 sigma level, where mu is the proper motion of the lens (relative to the line of sight to the source), and phi is the unknown (and so random) angle of the caustic crossing. Hence, the lens probably does not lie in either the Galactic halo or disk and so is most likely in the SMC itself. Our data can be combined with those of other groups to give more precise constraints on the proper motion (and hence the nature) of the lens.