A new variable radio source in Cygnus

Observations made at NRAO, Greenbank, at a wavelength of 3.7 cm of a source in Cygnus revealed a flux variation from 2.2 to 6.3 Jy during 1973. Although the field was very crowded because of the low galactic latitude, accurate radio and optical position measurements have yielded a provisional identification with a blue stellar object which had a magnitude of 19.5 on the Sky Survey. The identification is confirmed by recent optical observations showing that the object had brightened to 18.5 by 1973 November. A spectroscopic examination has revealed an emission feature near 4300 Å, and the object is almost certainly a quasar.