CC BOOTIS: QSO, NOT VARIABLE HALO GIANT

The poorly-studied, faint 18 less than mpg less than 19.5) variable star CC~Bootis has been noted in the literature as a candidate for a halo red giant. It proves instead to be a quasi-stellar object of redshift z=0.172, and is detected as an X-ray source by ROSAT. In addition to its odd heritage, CC~Boo exhibits unusually high amplitude optical variability for an optically-selected QS.