Another quasar

[lukebl]

Thanks to nytecam for pointing this one out, over on the Cloudy Nights forum. He posted an image of the quasar CX0 J02224+4221, which happens to be right next to NGC891 (or, more correctly, way off in the distance behind it).

I checked on my last image of it, and there it is. 18th magnitude, and possibly 8.5 billion light years away. 8,500,000,000 light years. That's a lot of light years! Light from before the earth existed, in fact.

Discovered by British-born astrophysicist, Margaret Burbidge, now aged 97 and living in California!

 

[Ruud]

That, Luke, is awesome!

[Stinky_Pete]

Jaw hits floor

That's cool, 8.5 billion years, nearly twice the age of our solar system! Its sort of similar to something I've been thinking about for a while. I've been wondering how far back/deep we can get with amateur kit. I see some post on here with 36h exposure time (which quite frankly is astounding anyway) and I wonder if between us we can get a similar exposure of a target as the Hubble deep field (13 days? In that range) and how it would compare to the professional image. Who's good at processing who would like to have a go eh? Anyone? 

[Allinthehead]

Some travelling that light has done. Nice capture

[Knight of Clear Skies]

11 hours ago, Stinky_Pete said:

Jaw hits floor

That's cool, 8.5 billion years, nearly twice the age of our solar system! Its sort of similar to something I've been thinking about for a while. I've been wondering how far back/deep we can get with amateur kit. I see some post on here with 36h exposure time (which quite frankly is astounding anyway) and I wonder if between us we can get a similar exposure of a target as the Hubble deep field (13 days? In that range) and how it would compare to the professional image. Who's good at processing who would like to have a go eh? Anyone? 

Here's a good target at 12 billion light years, a lensed Quasar in Lynx. At about mag 15-16 it should be possible to image with quite modest equipment. I've managed to get down past mag 19 with a DSLR and 200mm lens, which puts a large number of quasars in range.

The problem with taking a really long exposure down here is that most of us will hit a wall sooner or later due to light pollution or skyglow. The other thing to bear in mind is that the Hubble Deep Fields show a truly tiny patch of sky while amateurs image at much shorter focal lengths, very distant galaxies will show up as point sources. If you're interested, here's my modest attempt at a 'deep field' type image, I managed to pick up a few hundred galaxies in one image.

[Stinky_Pete]

I was wondering what would happen if say 100 of us with the same camera type took 4h each of a single patch of sky and stacked it, how deep that would go.  Love the idea of the lensed  quasar tho

19 minutes ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

Here's a good target at 12 billion light years, a lensed Quasar in Lynx. At about mag 15-16 it should be possible to image with quite modest equipment. I've managed to get down past mag 19 with a DSLR and 200mm lens, which puts a large number of quasars in range.

The problem with taking a really long exposure down here is that most of us will hit a wall sooner or later due to light pollution or skyglow. The other thing to bear in mind is that the Hubble Deep Fields show a truly tiny patch of sky while amateurs image at much shorter focal lengths, very distant galaxies will show up as point sources. If you're interested, here's my modest attempt at a 'deep field' type image, I managed to pick up a few hundred galaxies in one image.

Jaw hits floor

That's cool, 8.5 billion years, nearly twice the age of our solar system! Its sort of similar to something I've been thinking about for a while. I've been wondering how far back/deep we can get with amateur kit. I see some post on here with 36h exposure time (which quite frankly is astounding anyway) and I wonder if between us we can get a similar exposure of a target as the Hubble deep field (13 days? In that range) and how it would compare to the professional image. Who's good at processing who would like to have a go eh? Anyone?