THE CLOSE-SEPARATION GRAVITATIONAL LENS CANDIDATE Q1009-0252

We report photometry and spectra of three quasars, two of which make up a candidate close-separation gravitational lens, Q1009-0252A,B. The system is unusual in that a bright foreground quasar is projected only similar to 4.5 arcsec from the Line of sight to Q1009-0252. The gravitational lens candidate consists of two images, magnitudes m(V)=17.9 and 20.5, separation 1.53 arcsec. Spectra show both images to be quasars with redshift 2=2.739 and very similar emission line and continuum properties, although the fainter component is somewhat redder and its emission lines have larger equivalent widths. CCD photometry in B, V, R and I confirms the fainter component has a redder V-I color. Both components show strong Mg II absorption at z=0.869 and lensing by a massive galaxy at the absorption redshift can reproduce the main properties of the system. A second quasar, m(V)=19.1, redshift z=1.627, lies only 4.62 arcsec from Q1009-0252A. The geometric and photometric properties we derive for the Q1009-0252 system are in good agreement with the results of Surdej et al. [Gravitational Lenses in the Universe: 31st Liege Int. Astroph. Cell. (Universite de Liege, Liege) (1994)], who discovered the system independently in the course of their ESO Key Project. Detection of weak absorption from the z=0.869 Mg II system in the z=1.627 quasar sets a lower limit to the scale of the Mg Il absorber of 40hs(50)(-1) kpc. Strong Mg II absorption is visible in both components of the lens candidate at the emission redshift of the nearby z=1.627 quasar, placing a lower limit of 45h(50)(-1) kpc to the size of the Mg II system associated with the quasar.