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Old 12-04-2019, 07:18 PM
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GUS.K (Ivan)
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Medlow Bath
Posts: 553
Observing 3C 273 with smaller scopes.

Was out wednesday evening with a scope I acquired recently(thanks Craig), a Celestron omni XLT 6 inch F5. I replaced the crap focuser for a 2 inch 10:1 Crayford and increased the diagonal to 51mm(original about 30mm). Scope was collimated as good as I coud get it with my cheshire and auto collimator.
This outing was to test the new configuration of the scope, and after looking at all the showpiece objects, I then spent a bit of time going through the virgo Cluster and while there, thought I might try my luck and see if I can spot 3C 273. I've seen it numerous times over the years with scopes 8 inch and larger but didn't think a 6 inch scope would show it(at 12.9 mag it would be getting close to the mag limit of a 6 inch).After about 5 minutes of searching I was surprised that I could see it , as well as a 13.5 mag star directly west of it(with averted vision, and occasionally with direct vision), using a 13mm Ethos at 57x. At 2.4 billion light years, not bad for a cheap 6 inch scope.
Has anyone seen it with a smaller scope?
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