Spectral Monitoring of AGN at the 6 Meter Telescope

Spectral monitoring of NGC 3516, NGC 4151, NGC 5548 and NGC 7469 has been carried out in 1986-1996 on time scales of days-months-years. In 1986-1995, the observations were made on the SAO 6-m telescope using a TV scanner with SNR about 20 in the range 4000-5200 Å (about 500 spectra). In 1996, virtually all spectra were obtained using a CCD camera with 2D and 3D spectrographs in the range 4000-7000 Å with SNR 50-100 (270 spectra). The Seyfert galaxies NGC 7469, NGC 5548, and 3C390.3 were observed in the international "AGN Watch" program by about 40 observatories around the world at optical wavelengths and by the IUE and HST in the UV. Our observations in this program demonstrated that there are no significant radial motions inside the broad line regions in NGC 4151, 3C390.3 and, possibly, in NGC 5548; that the BLR dimensions are about half those previously assumed; and that there is stratification of the BLR. The SAO 6-m observations suggest the existence of narrow satellites of the H lines during the low state of NGC 4151 in 1986-1987; new data on the narrow line region indicates the existence of an intermediate-velocity OIII component (about 2000 km/s).