2008CBET.1249....1Y

S. Yoshida, Gunma, Japan, writes that the quasar 0133+476 (z = 0.859 from Lawrence et al. 1996, Ap.J. Suppl. 107, 541; also known as DA 55; cf. Veron-Cetty and Veron 2001, "A Catalogue of Quasars and Active Nuclei (10th edition)", http://www.obs-hp.fr/www/catalogues/veron2_10/table1A_v10.dat; R.A. = 1h36m58s.6, Decl. = +47o51'29", equinox 2000.0) has been found to be notably bright, as indicated by the following CCD magnitudes provided by members of Yoshida's MISAO project (all using an SBIG ST-8 camera): 2000 Dec. 1.47 UT, 16.2 (N. Ohkura, 500-mm camera lens); 2001 Dec. 11.46, 15.5 (Ohkura); 2002 Jan. 2.40, 16.6 (Ohkura); 2007 Sept. 12.81, 15.4 (Y. Nakashima, 7.6-cm f/6.6 refractor); Oct. 6.75, 15.3 (N. Ohkura and Y. Nakashima, 7.6-cm f/6.6 refractor); Nov. 11.63, 14.1 (Nakashima); Dec. 3.52, 14.9 (Nakashima). The USNO-A2.0 catalogue lists this quasar at red mag 18.3 and blue mag 18.5. Yoshida provides the following approximate V magnitudes (via comparison to nearby stars with red and blue magnitudes in the USNO-A2.0 catalogue) from various Digitized Sky Survey plates: 1953 Oct. 12, 18.7 (red and blue plates); 1989 Sept. 28, 17.8 (red plate); 1990 Oct. 28, 18.7 (infrared plate); 1991 Oct. 3, 19.0 (red plate); 1992 Oct. 21, 18.7 (blue plate); 1992 Dec. 24, 17.2 (blue plate); 1993 Aug. 15, 15.8 (blue plate); Sept. 21, 17.0 (infrared plate); 1995 Oct. 26, 15.8 (infrared plate). Yoshida adds that J. Greaves finds that this quasar is given at mag 14.3 for mid-July 2002 in the UCAC2 catalogue, and at mag 15.0 in late 2002 from the CMC14 catalogue, adding that R. J. Bouma found the quasar as bright as mag 15.0 on 2002 Sept. 24 via the Skymorph archive. Yoshida provides finding charts and MISAO images at http://www.aerith.net/misao/variable/MisV1436.html