Quasar J0529-4351

[petevasey]

Most will have seen the artists impression of this on line - the brightest quasar discovered so far.   But very few mentions of the RA and DEC coordinates.  They are of course intrinsic to the name,  RA 5 Hours 29 minutes,  DEC 43 minutes 51 seconds South .  I've plotted it on Skymap Pro using a background image, and I reckon more accurate coordinates are (J 2000)  RA 5 29 15.8 and DEC -43 51 54.  In Pictor and too far South alas for UK observers.  Olly Penrice is also out of luck - maximum altitude for him is just over 2 degrees.  Someone at COAA might stand a chance, just over 9 degrees altitude.  Go to the Canary Islands and things are looking better at over 17 degrees altitude.   The image below is from one of the zoom in shots on line, the stars are real, and the coordinates match.

If anyone is in a suitable location, worth a try out of interest - do post your result.

Cheers,  Peter

 

Edited February 21 by petevasey
Added extra ID to bright star

[tomato]

Thanks, I was really keen to image this (apparent mag 16) but concluded it was not visible from the UK, which you have confirmed.

Like you I look forward to seeing an image posted, the stats on this quasar are just mind blowing.

[DefinitelyNotAnAIChatbot]

Hi All,

First post here but I imaged this last night. I ran into some problems and only managed about 20 mins total on R and G but it's enough to capture the target. I'll try to return to collect more data at the next opportunity I get. Cool target for sure and I look forward to seeing what others produce!

_____
Planewave CDK14;  ZWO ASI2600MM; Chroma R,G; Paramount MEII; Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile

Edited February 21 by DefinitelyNotAnAIChatbot

[tomato]

Seemingly just a point of light amongst many others,  but wow, do we now know different!

Great capture👍

[DefinitelyNotAnAIChatbot]

Indeed! From the study authors:

Quote

And, remarkably, this record-breaking quasar was hiding in plain sight. “It is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now,” says co-author Christopher Onken, an astronomer at ANU. He added that this object showed up in images from the ESO Schmidt Southern Sky Survey dating back to 1980, but it was not recognised as a quasar until decades later.

(Source https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2402/)

 

[Paul M]

4 hours ago, DefinitelyNotAnAIChatbot said:

Hi All,

First post here but I imaged this last night. I ran into some problems and only managed about 20 mins total on R and G but it's enough to capture the target. I'll try to return to collect more data at the next opportunity I get. Cool target for sure and I look forward to seeing what others produce!

_____
Planewave CDK14;  ZWO ASI2600MM; Chroma R,G; Paramount MEII; Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile

Great image. 

Just how I like it. Requires more imagination that processing skill!😁

[petevasey]

For those who are too far north for J0529-4321 the twin or double quasar QSO 0957+561 A/B in Ursa Major is nicely positioned at the moment.  Just NE of galaxy NGC 3079, there's a photo on my web site that I completed in January 2021.  I submitted it to Astronomy Now, but I don't think it was used at the time.  Coincidentally it's in the current March issue Night Sky section!

Cheers,  Peter

Edited February 22 by petevasey

[tomato]

Just looked up your photo in AN, great image. Their policy of reserving the right to use the submitted images at some future point in the magazine must give them a nice stream of free images coming into their library, but they do do at least acknowledge the source if they use it. 

[petevasey]

31 minutes ago, tomato said:

Just looked up your photo in AN, great image. Their policy of reserving the right to use the submitted images at some future point in the magazine must give them a nice stream of free images coming into their library, but they do do at least acknowledge the source if they use it. 

Thank you.  Not exactly free.  They do pay for using them, generally £10 every time - the image of M48 also in that issue was paid for each time it has been used - this is the third time!  As was my Sharpless 284 image first time used,  again in the March issue - I could hardly believe I had 3 images in the same issue.   Picture of the Month is the one that really gets the prize - £50!

Cheers, Peter.

Edited February 22 by petevasey

[tomato]

Apologies, I didn’t realise AN paid a fee if they  used one of the images submitted.

Congratulations on getting yours published, to date I’ve only submitted one image as the standard is very high, but I might submit a few more now, thanks to the X suite of processing tools.☺️