October 6, 2012: The BL Lac object 4C 11.69 (== CTA 102) was discovered in bright outburst by V. Larionov, D. Blinov, and S. Jorstad (St. Petersburg University and Boston University) on 2012 September 18, reaching a magnitude of R=14.67; see ATel #4397 (http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=4397). Those authors also claim a coincident substantial increase in the gamma ray flux as observed by the Fermi LAT instrument. As of 2012 September 19.8799, they found the source was still brighter than R=15.1 but fading rapidly. Observations of this interesting source are encouraged over the next several days. The object has been around m(vis) = 16.5 for the past few hundred days; the most recent AAVSO observation was m(vis)=16.4 on 2012 August 17.005 (JD 2456156.505) by Adolfo Darriba Martinez (Spain).
4C 11.69 is located at the following J2000 coordinates:
RA: 22 32 36.41 , Dec: +11 43 50.9
A new sequence expanding upon previously released comparisons from the GTN project has been prepared by Tim Crawford of the AAVSO Sequence team and is available via VSP:
Please use the name "4C 11.69" when submitting observations to the AAVSO.
This AAVSO Special Notice was prepared by M. Templeton.