Optical photometry of quasar 0957+561A,B

Observations of the gravitational lens system 0957+561A, B in the R band are presented in this Letter. The observations, taken with the 82 cm IAC-80 telescope, at Teide Observatory, Spain, were made from the beginning of 1996 February to June, as part of an on-going lens monitoring program to obtain the time delay between the two components of the system. By comparing our data with those previously published by Kundic et al., we infer that a large delay (>500 days) is inconsistent with both data sets.