Quasar J0529-4351 in Pictor.

[GUS.K (Ivan)]

After seeing an article about this recently discovered quasar in a thread over on Deep sky forum, and with a predicted clear night (Tuesday the 5th march), I thought I'd give this one a go. Made up a few finder charts from wikisky and set up the 18 inch scope around 9.30pm. Seeing conditions were good and transparency was above average ( a good night for spiral arms) and with an SQM reading of 21.1 mpsas and at an elevation just over 1000 meters. Magnifications used were 310 and 450x. Starting from Beta Pictoris, I starhopped my way to 8.6 magnitude HD36477 (a star at the southern end of a rough semi circle of stars). From there I made my way to a 12.5 magnitude star near to the quasars location. The magnitude shown for the QSO on Wikisky is 16.8 V, but figures of 16 - 16.34 magnitude G have been quoted on some sites. I spent about a half hour or so on it, and using averted vision, was able to glimpse it a half dozen or so times. Every so often the nearby 16.95 magnitude star would pop in and out of view as well. It took a lot of concentration, hand tracking with a dob at higher powers is not the easiest thing to do, but using wider field eyepieces (76 degree AFOV in this case) made it a little easier to let the image drift with enough time to concentrate on the right spot with averted vision. The high red shift of Z=3.962 equates to a lookback time of somewhere around 12 Billion years give or take.
Thanks for reading.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Hi Ivan.

That was a mighty feat you achieved by observing Quasar J0529-4351 in Pictor! This is our of my league with my 10 inch, but once I get my 14 inch I will have to try for it from a dark site. Congratulations

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

Fabulous observation, Ivan. Thanks for sharing.

[GUS.K (Ivan)]

Thanks Joe and Steve. Joe, when do you get your new scope? Let us know if you have success with this one. Have you had a look at 3C 273 in virgo with your 10 inch? There is also a quasar in eridanus at 14 mag which you would be able to see with the 10 inch.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Originally Posted by GUS.K

Thanks Joe and Steve. Joe, when do you get your new scope? Let us know if you have success with this one. Have you had a look at 3C 273 in virgo with your 10 inch? There is also a quasar in eridanus at 14 mag which you would be able to see with the 10 inch.

Hi Ivan. I will be getting my 14 inch dob end of April for my birthday

I have observed quasar 3C 273 in Virgo several times, it remains my only quasar observation to date. Thanks for letting me know about the quasar in Eridanus, I will research it and give it a go. Cheers

[Dave882 (David)]

That’s wonderful Ivan. Fantastic effort and a feat i can only dream of from the Sydney suburbs!

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

A clear night here and thought I would try observing this quasar using EAA observing techniques.

EAA observing has become my default observing method over the last year or so. It is revealing far more than I could observe at the eyepiece and all from the comfort of indoors. Using EAA, I have been able to match your visual observation through your 18'' scope with my 5.5'' scope..

Here is a 10 minute live stack using SharpCap with my Vixen NA140SS refractor at f4 and an ASI585 OSC camera. 200 X 4 second exposures at Gain 210. No post processing at all.

[GUS.K (Ivan)]

Thanks Dave. Steve, great catch and thanks for sharing your observations.

[dabbeldi]

Thanks for the finder chart, I will need to try finding this quasar the next time I get out!
87% of the way to the big bang - that's nuts!

[GUS.K (Ivan)]

Originally Posted by dabbeldi

Thanks for the finder chart, I will need to try finding this quasar the next time I get out!
87% of the way to the big bang - that's nuts!

Thanks, let us know if you do.