------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3127 2015 Nov 12 20.58UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074 INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.theastronomer.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- OUTBURST OF OJ287 Further to TA E-Circular 3126 by Mark Kidger and Denis Buczynski, M. Valtonen et. al. Turku University have now reported on The Astronomer's Telegram 8378 confirmation of the outburst of the blazar OJ287. They add: A model that contains a massive BH binary was proposed to explain the double peaked quasi-periodical (roughly about 12 years) outbursts of the blazar OJ287. A regular photometric monitoring of this target has been performed since the very beginning of this season with the aim of catching the next outburst, predicted by the model to occur this winter, between mid November and early January. Brightness of OJ287 was changing in the range between 14.4 and 14.8 mag in the R filter for most of this season but starting from Nov 18 we observed its gradual light increase, followed by a rapid brightness rise also announced by the ASAS project (ATEL #8372). On Dec 4, we recorded the highest brightness of about 12.9 mag (R) and OJ287 started to fade. We believe that the current outburst, consistent with the inspiralling spinning massive BH binary model for OJ287, could be the expected GR centenary flare. Guy M Hurst