VERITAS Observations of a Very High Energy Gamma-ray Flare from the
  Blazar 3C 66A
  The intermediate-frequency peaked BL Lacertae (IBL) object 3C 66A is detected
during 2007 - 2008 in VHE (very high energy: E > 100 GeV) gamma-rays with the
VERITAS stereoscopic array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. An
excess of 1791 events is detected, corresponding to a significance of 21.2
standard deviations (sigma), in these observations (32.8 hours live time). The
observed integral flux above 200 GeV is 6% of the Crab Nebula's flux and shows
evidence for variability on the time-scale of days. The measured energy
spectrum is characterized by a soft power law with photon index Gamma = 4.1 +-
0.4_stat +- 0.6_sys. The radio galaxy 3C 66B is excluded as a possible source
of the VHE emission.
