Quasar in outburst so gave it a go

[mdstuart]

Evening all

Looking at the avso newsletter and saw that a quasar was in outburst so despite the moon I thought ....this should be possible.

Here are the details of pks 076 +714...It's pretty high in the sky in CAM.

http://gtn.sonoma.edu/object_catalog/details.php?object=3

It was a fairly easy catch in my 16 inch at mag 13.6 ish..my limit was 14.1 tonight with that moon!

Only 3761 million light years away as I understand it.

About 7 times further away than the most distant galaxy I have seen...[emoji3]

Mark

[lukebl]

Interesting. Thanks for the info. Must give this one a go.

[Dave In Vermont]

Thank you for posting this. More telemetry to chase! I love it!

Clear Skies & Moonlight,

Dave

[NickK]

I may have a look for this too.. normally pick a couple of targets in a night.

[mdstuart]

My observation plotted on AAVSO - looks about right!

 

 

Go on see if you can see it with a full moon...!

 

Mark

[lukebl]

I had a quick imaging session with this tonight. PHD was playing up, so I just captured 14 x 30 second exposures unguided. I ran it through Astrometrica and it came up with a magnitude of 13.5. Not at its brightest but my first quasar (or should I call it my first BL Lacertae object?). Thanks, Mark.

[mdstuart]

Thanks Luke..great image...and it's further away than that 3c 373 most folks have seen.

[mdstuart]

Sorry 3c 273!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very interesting. Under good conditions it might be within range of my C8 (got OJ287 at mag 13.9 a year or two back). Otherwise I will ask the guys at the observatory if I can have a peek through the 16"RC