  CCD observations of the gravitational lens system Q0957+561A,B in the BVRI
bands are presented in this paper. The observations, taken with the 82 cm
IAC-80 telescope, at Teide Observatory, Spain, were made from the beginning of
1996 February to 1998 July, as part of an on-going lens monitoring program.
Accurate photometry was obtained by simultaneously fitting a stellar
two-dimensional profile on each component by means of DAOPHOT software. This
alternative method equals and even improves the results obtained with previous
techniques. The final dataset is characterized by its high degree of
homogeneity as it was obtained using the same telescope and instrumentation
during a period of almost 3 years. The resulting delay, obtained with a new
method, the delta2-test, is of 425 +/- 4 days, slightly higher than the value
previously accepted (417 days), but concordant with the results obtained by
Pelt et al. (1996); Oscoz et al. (1997); Pijpers (1997); and Goicoechea et al.
(1999).
