Furthest Object You Have Oberved

[NeutrinoWave]

Ok so Andromeda is circa 2+ Million Light Years away and can be seen hazily with the Naked Eye with a little luck

But what is the furthest object you have observed with your scope

Please detail

Object Id

Light Years Distance

Scope Type and Aperture

any other Equipment

ie imaging etc

[Veracocha]

Not sure if I ever made a positive id and i suspect it was -30 mag but probably the wife's purse.

[WayBig]

Can't remember which one it was but I remember feeling chuffed when finding out that a galaxy I'd seen was 66mm light years away. That was with a 10 inch dob from moderately light polluted back garden

[saturn4me]

My next pay-rise!!

[Double Kick Drum]

OK, so I had to look up distances but M77 wins it for me at approximately 50 to 60 million light years.

Spotted with a Bresser Messier 127mm F5 last year in semi-rural sky (parts of milky way visible). Haven't been able to see it so far this year.

Expect that to be well beaten by the big guns!

[WayBig]

Can't remember which one it was but I remember feeling chuffed when finding out that a galaxy I'd seen was 66mm light years away. That was with a 10 inch dob from moderately light polluted back garden

Got it, ngc4635 in Virgo, 67mm ly

[NeutrinoWave]

Apologies for the spelling in the subject. Blame it on my Friday beer

[John]

I was rather impressed when I managed to see supernova (SN2011b) in the faint galaxy NGC2655 in the constellation Camelopardalis near Ursa Minor back in late January this year. The galaxy and the supernova are around 80 million light years from us so the light from that exploding star set off when the dinosaurs still walked the Earth. Rather awe inspiring

[andrew63]

Bit of a coincidence but i was looking at M77 last night - Cetus is rising nicely in the sky and it is probably the furthest seen to date - not sure how much further back i'll be able to go with only 4" refrac. - it looks with low power like a double star.

andrew

[WayBig]

Bit of a coincidence but i was looking at M77 last night - Cetus is rising nicely in the sky and it is probably the furthest seen to date - not sure how much further back i'll be able to go with only 4" refrac. - it looks with low power like a double star.

andrew

That's on my list for the next clear night!

[cantab]

Since I have binoculars and LP skies, it's M31 for me so far.

[GazOC]

If you want to "win" this one with a small scope, go for a Quasar.

[John]

If you want to "win" this one with a small scope, go for a Quasar.

The race is on then

My "research" tells me it's quasar 3C 273 which is in Virgo - mag 12.9, that's the brightest. Something in the order of 2 billion LY's from us

(got to say that with a Carl Sagan accent !)

[GazOC]

I've tried a few with GOTO John. You can find the starfield they are in and look at them but it'd be a stretch to say you "observed" them if you know what I mean?

[RikM]

Which was the gravitationally lensed quasar that Tom (Hypernova) was raving about at SGL6? That was several billion LY away.

[NeutrinoWave]

If you want to "win" this one with a small scope, go for a Quasar.

Really, so have you or anyone you know observed a Quasar from a scope at home.

Not via Keck or something astronomically expensive.

We are talking observations by amateur astronomers using their humble kit in their backyard.

So far M77 seems like getting a high tally so far, but lets see what else people have observed in the extragalactic arena.

Are we amateur astronomers to remain in our Local Group or go beyond into the depths of the Local Supercluster or will we venture beyond the Virgo Supercluster ...

[GazOC]

Read through the thread Neutrino. Quasars arn't that faint (the greater scheme of things) and can be been seen with pretty modest amateur apertures.

So yes, in answer to your question, "really"....;O)

[hemihaggis]

m77 from the back door , but my plan is set up the scope at the far end os the garden ,....then m 77 will be 60million + 25 feet farther

[John]

....We are talking observations by amateur astronomers using their humble kit in their backyard.

...

So are we - at mag 12.9 quasar 3C 273 is potentially visible in the sort of scopes we have. As I said in my earlier post in this thread, I've managed to see a mag 13.5 supernova with my 10" newtonain so the brightest visible quasar should be possible.

[andrew63]

in Burnhams hanbook vol 3 on page 2101 there is a finder chart for 3C 273 - a one degree circle limiting mag 15 - good luck!

andrew

[NeutrinoWave]

Ok we have the Quasar Hunters, accepted.

I also remember seeing somewhere that people have seen Stephan's Quintet which is ~290 Million Light Years Away, well atleast the Quartet of the Quintet technically.

Anyone seen any clustering beyond 300 MLy through their (amateur) scope?

[Beulah]

Yup, Stephan's Quintet for me. I feel I could push another .5 limiting magnitude with my setup & sky though.

[Ben Ritchie]

The race is on then

My "research" tells me it's quasar 3C 273 which is in Virgo - mag 12.9, that's the brightest. Something in the order of 2 billion LY's from us

(got to say that with a Carl Sagan accent !)

I've ticked that one off, although it's a case of working out which 'star' is actually a QSO. It's not actually that hard with a 12" under decent sky

Imaging-wise i've done APM 08279 +5255 at z=3.87 (about 12 billion light years), that's 15th magnitude in the R-band so in principle within reach visually for a big Dob under dark sky. For imagers it's easy.

[Astronut1982]

The farthest I've seen is probably M81 & M82 which are 12m ly away.

I tried to see M101 & the recent supernova but theres a lot of LP in my back garden. I'm gonna try again when I go my dark site with the 12" dob for the 1st time! I can't wait!!!

Jeff