GUS.K
10-11-2020, 07:32 PM
Last night was clear so I decided to set up the 18 inch. One of my targets was a quasar in Eridanus, PKS 0405-123 with a redshift of 0.57, which equates to a lookback time of 4.9 billion lightyears. It's magnitude is around 14.9 but it varies between 14.3 and 15.4. It's classified as a Seyfert 1 galaxy. I initially found details about this object on the linked site below-
https://observing.skyhound.com/archives/dec/Q0405-123.html#:~:text=MSH%2004%2D12%20is %20a%20fairly%20bright%20quasar%20i n%20Eridanus.&text=The%20redshift%20of%20this%20q uasar,observed%20nearby%20quasar%2C %203C%20273.
but also Simbad and Wikisky for my finder chart.
It is located about 2 degrees north east of gamma Eridanus and is well placed mid evening (RA 04 07 48.5 & Dec -12 11 36) It was a simple starhop and the field was easy to locate. The quasar was detected with direct vision through my 21mm eyepiece, and was visible constantly, so an easy spot for the 18. You would probably be able to spot this quasar with a 10 or 12 inch scope with higher power, I might give it a go with my 10 inch next clear night. If you do have a shot at this one, I'd like to hear about it.
In the linked site some of the charts are reversed.
thanks for reading.
https://observing.skyhound.com/archives/dec/Q0405-123.html#:~:text=MSH%2004%2D12%20is %20a%20fairly%20bright%20quasar%20i n%20Eridanus.&text=The%20redshift%20of%20this%20q uasar,observed%20nearby%20quasar%2C %203C%20273.
but also Simbad and Wikisky for my finder chart.
It is located about 2 degrees north east of gamma Eridanus and is well placed mid evening (RA 04 07 48.5 & Dec -12 11 36) It was a simple starhop and the field was easy to locate. The quasar was detected with direct vision through my 21mm eyepiece, and was visible constantly, so an easy spot for the 18. You would probably be able to spot this quasar with a 10 or 12 inch scope with higher power, I might give it a go with my 10 inch next clear night. If you do have a shot at this one, I'd like to hear about it.
In the linked site some of the charts are reversed.
thanks for reading.