Spectrum of Very High Energy Gamma‐Rays from the blazar 1ES 1959+650 during Flaring Activity in 2002

The blazar 1ES 1959+650 was observed in a flaring state with the Whipple 10 mImaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope during May of 2002. A spectral analysishas been carried out on the data from that time period and the resulting veryhigh energy gamma-ray spectrum ($E \geq 316$ GeV) can be well fit by apower-law of differential spectral index \alpha = 2.78 +/- 0.12_{stat.} +/-0.21_{sys.}. On June 4th 2002, the source flared dramatically in the gamma-rayrange without any coincident increase in the X-ray emission, providing thefirst unambiguous example of an `orphan' gamma-ray flare from a blazar. Thegamma-ray spectrum for these data can also be described by a simple power-lawfit with \alpha = 2.82 +/- 0.15_{stat.} +/- 0.30_{sys.}. There is no compellingevidence for spectral variability, or for any cut-off to the spectrum.