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Observe quasar 3C273 in amateur telescopes
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3C273 is near Eta Viginis (skymap). |
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3C273 finder chart for Star-hopping from Eta Viginis, circles are 1 degree, down to magnitude 11. (skymap) |
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A photo of 3C273 from the STScI Digitized Sky Survey with matching circle. |
The star field was easily reached by star-hopping from eta Virginis. The quasar was invisible in a 25mm eyepiece. Then I switched to a 9mm eyepiece (135x) to darken the background and 3C273 became just visible. With averted vision I was able to see several more nearby stars and confirm the identity of the quasar.
3C273 looks just like a dim star (magnitude around 13). But this is probably the farthest object in the universe that I can observe -- an exciting but sobering thought. I stood by the telescope and let my eyes absorb the oldest photons for quite a while.
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Quasar 3C273 |
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