Observing 3C 273 with smaller scopes.

[GUS.K]

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?

[mental4astro]

Great get, Ivan.

This quasar is on my list of objects for this coming new Moon.

[timokarhula]

I could glimpse (with some difficulty) 3C273 with 25x100 binoculars back in 2007. The quasar has been seen with 4 cm of aperture and 128x but I'm not aware of anyone having seen it with less magnification than 25x.

/Timo Karhula

[GUS.K]

Thanks Alex and Timo. Will give it a try with a 100mm binoscope.

[GUS.K]

Spotted 3C 273 last night through my 100mm binoscope with a pair of 16mm ep's at about 40x. Using a finder chart from AAVSO, was able to spot a 10.2 mag star close by, then with some effort and averted vision, a 12.7 mag comparison star would become visable, as would the 12.9 mag quasar. Being fully dark adapted helped. 2.4 billion light years with a 100mm scope, now that's a new record for me.