I first read about the discovery of Quasars, these enigmatic, distant, energetic objects, as a schoolboy. I never imagined that one day, I would be able to record the stellar like presence of one through a small telescope in my back garden. After a “
why not try for a Quasar” PM from Beren, I gave it a go – thanks Stuart!
In SkyTools 4 Imaging, using the Database Power Search Tool for Extragalactic Objects, I found a list of Quasars, filtered by date and my location, with a Redshift z >4, visible in August.
The 1st entry (Q2237-0607 in Aquarius) in the list looked like a good candidate at mag 18.3 so I slewed to the location and grabbed a series of 40x30 sec images and was pleasantly surprised to find a good match.
I also found an interesting APOD that showed a “Redshift Lookup Table for our Universe” which itself linked to the original Technical Paper which can be viewed as a PDF. It is described as a “Paper-and-pencil cosmological calculator” for when you don’t have an Internet Connection.
SkyTools 4 Imaging Data (sub-set)- Q2237-0607
- Quasar
- R.A. 22h39m53.6s Dec.: -05°52'19" (2000) in Aquarius
- Magnitude: 18.30 R
- Size: stellar
- Redshift (z): 4.55
- Light Time: 12.0 Gyr
- Apparent Data for 2021 Jul 30 GMT+10 at Brisbane, Australia:
- Apparent RA: 22h41m01.1s, Apparent Dec: -05°45'33"
LINKS:
APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130408.html
Paper-and-pencil cosmological calculator PDF
https://arxiv.org/abs/1303.5961
Cheers
Dennis
Tak Mewlon 210 F11.5 with Tak x0.8 RF
ASI 290 MM Pro
40x30 secs