How far have you seen?

[Jazza11]

I have only seen 35 million light years this is when i observed the leo triplet with M65 and M66 and another NGC but i do not know the number but when i get my argo navis im gonna have a go any try to find the that quaser that is 2.6 billion light years away

So how far have you seen?

[erick]

Yep, 3C 273. It's on my list to hunt down.

Here are your further challenges! :eyepop: Bottom of the article.

http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Miscellaneous/Long_Ago_Far_Away.htm

[Paddy]

3C273 is the farthest thing that I've seen. Thanks for the link to the list Eric, they sound like interesting challenges (well at least the ones in Leo and Hercules - I'm not planning any trips for enough north for the others).

[pgc hunter]

I've ben wondering the same thing....any know of any sites that give distances to galaxies in lightyears (not redshift)?

[ngcles]

Hi Jazza & All,

Personally, the record for me is Q 1224-1116, a QSO (Quasar) in Virgo not far from M104. It has a redshift of 1.98 implying a "look-back time" of about 10.8 billion years.

When you observe that quasar, you are looking at light more than twice as old as the solar-system.

There is a (short) list of some brighter quasars here:

http://seds.org/~spider/spider/Misc/qso.html

many of which are visible in moderate-sized amateur 'scopes.

A much more complete list is here:

http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/KHQ/khq_e.htm

I seem to remember the most distant object visible in amateur-sized 'scopes is a QSO in Ursa Major at about mag 17 that has a redshift of 3.1 implying a look-back time of about 12 billion years.

As for most distant (ordinary) galaxy, I'm not certain but I think the record holder for me is a galaxy (MCG +5-36-020) in AGC 2065 in Corona Borealis that, assuming the Hubble Constant to be 71 kilometres per second per megaparsec, is about 950 million light-years away.

That observation was made with 31cm (12") back in 2000:

x186 26' TF. Mag 15.1 Size 0.4' This is a very very difficult observation. Found - there is a line of *s in roughly PA 45 from the N mag 12, 13, 13.5 *s from NE-SW. Middle * is displaced to the SWfrom centre. From that * in PA 60, 2.5' distant is a threshold dot only 10" diameter which is very occasionally visible about 4 times in 5 mins of observation. Only very occasionally wafts into view for a couple of seconds, 90% certain. G Mitchell confirms.

I've seen lots of others with 12 & 18" between the 500 and 900 million light-years mark. There may be a few others a little more more distant than this -- I haven't kept any stats on that.

Hope this helps,


Best,

Les D

[ngcles]

Hi PGC,



This attachment has quite a few distances for NGC galaxies. I think the source is Glen Cozens (glenc) but I can't be certain who gave it to me.


Best,

Les D

[Peter Ward]

Paltry I know, but my best *terrestrial view* was about 370km. At work, Mt Everest, while en-route to Bangkok.

[Jazza11]

Wow you have seen VERY far lol have you seen Einsteins Galaxy???

Peter im jelous now i have wanted to go see everest and climb it for ages

[SkyViking]

That's awesome Les! I also love hunting down those obscure and faraway objects.
I did an image of Q1451-15 which has a redshift of 4.762 which is pretty far away: http://www.titirangiobservatory.com/.../q1451-15.html (http://www.titirangiobservatory.com/deepsky/q1451-15.html)
I have inverted the image so the quasar is more obvious. It was interesting that in the original image it was very noticeably red due to the redshift (= blue in the inverted image)

I've created another thread recently here for the same topic http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=53164 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=53164)
I'm interested in knowing if anyone has imaged a more distant quasar or gravitational arcs or other extreme targets? Einsteins Cross for example?

[glenc]

3,716 distances to 1,210 galaxies with v < 1/8 c, published in 524 papers since Jan. 1, 1990
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/NED1D/ned1d.html
1 pc = 3.26 lyrs
NGC 6038 is 463 Mlyrs

[Astro78]

Lol. I once tried setting up my scope around Milson's point - hoping to sell a shot of Russell Crow sitting in his lounge having a beer (he's at the end of the wharf near harry's cafe), to new idea or alike. Of course legally you can't do that so didn't bother - of course ;)