2002A&A...395...17W

We report the discovery of a new gravitationally lensed QSO, at a redshift z=1.689, with four QSO components in a cross-shaped arrangement around a bright galaxy. The maximum separation between images is 2.6", enabling a reliable decomposition of the system. Three of the QSO components have g≃19.6, while component A is about 0.6 mag brighter. The four components have nearly identical colours, suggesting little if any dust extinction in the foreground galaxy. The lensing galaxy is prominent in the i band, weaker in r and not detected in g. Its spatial profile is that of an elliptical galaxy with a scale length of ∼12kpc. Combining the measured colours and a mass model for the lens, we estimate a most likely redshift range of 0.3<z<0.4. Predicted time delays between the components are ≲10days. The QSO shows evidence for variability, with total g band magnitudes of 17.89 and 17.71 for two epochs separated by ∼2 months. However, the relative fluxes of the components did not change, indicating that the variations are intrinsic to the QSO rather than induced by microlensing.