Since the beginning of November, the brightness of AGN 3C 371 has been steadily increasing slightly. On Sunday evening, 12.11.2022, we were able to measure a stronger increase in the optical brightness of this object. We have only had this AGN in our measurement programme for a good two years. It was the highest brightness value we have measured for this AGN since then and one of the highest in 15 years.
3C 371 belongs to the subgroup of BL Lacertae objects, a group of active galactic nuclei that are very bright. Scientists assume that in these objects the accretion disk is more or less perpendicular to our line of sight, so that we look almost directly into the jet. This also explains the relatively high brightness of these celestial objects.