BVRI observations of 235 bright quasars

Mean B, V, R, I magnitudes at the 5% level are obtained at 1-4 epochs between 2005 and 2007 using the 1m telescopes at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and the Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station. Of the 134 sources that have V magnitudes in the Veron & Veron-Cetty catalog (Cat.

VII/248), a difference of over 1.0mag is found for the observed-catalog magnitudes for about 36% of the common sources, and 10 sources show over 3mag difference. Our first set of observations presented here form the basis of a long-term photometric variability study of the selected reference frame sources to assist in mission target selection and to support QSO multicolor photometric variability studies in general.