OSSE Observations of Blazars

Results are reported on observations obtained with the Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE) instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) of 17 active galactic nuclei known to exhibit blazar properties at other wavelengths. These observations span the period from 1991 June through 1994 May. Of the 33 high-confidence EGRET detections of blazars during CGRO observing phases 1 and 2 (1991 May 16 - 1993 Sept. 7), OSSE has observed 8 and detected 5, namely 3C 273, 3C 279, PKS 0528+134, CTA 102, and 3C 454.3. Additionally, OSSE has detected the BL LAC sources H 1517+65.6 and PKS 2155-304, which were not detected with EGRET. Variablility in the energy band 50 -150 keV is observed for all of the detected AGN. The OSSE blazar sources are all well described by simple power law models with photon number indices,,, varying from 1.0 to 2.1 among sources. When combined with available, although not necessarily contrmporaneous, COMPTEL and EGRET observations, 4 out of 5 detected blazars show clear evidence for spectral breaks between the hard X-ray and medium energy gamma-ray bands. The exception is the combined OSSE/EGRET data for 3C 279 during 1991 October, where a simple power-law with, approximately equal 1.9 works equally well. Gamma-ray evidence for beaming in CTA 102, PKS 0528+134, and 3C 454.3 is presented.