1994-1996 OPTICAL OUTBURSTS OF THE BL-LAC-OBJECT OJ-287

VRI band CCD photometric observations of the BL Lac object OJ 287 have been carried out during the period from 1994 October to 1996 May, wit h a mean interval of about a week. OJ 287 underwent two major outburst s during our observations. The first peak (V = 14.0 mag) occurred in t he first half of 1994 November and faded out to 16.5 mag within 150 da ys. The second peak (V = 14.0 mag) was observed in the second half of 1995 December. The latter peak continued at nearly the same brightness until 1996 May. Such a long lasting outburst has never been reported for OJ 287. Color indices (V - R and V - I) remained nearly constant d uring the interval.