Acr620412707714472-18110.tmp.pdf

36 March 2014 sky & telescope

Hunting Distant Objects

Visit skypub.

com/quasar

hunt for

more informa-

tion about the

objects

described in

this article.

I used two telescopes: a 10-inch f/20 Telescope Engi-

neering Company (TEC) Maksutov, and a homemade

16-inch f/4.5 Dobsonian with a Meade mirror. Due to

its tight star images, the 10-inch didn’t do badly at all

— I observed several of the quasars with it, even from

Princeton. The 16-inch at the darker observing site was

defi nitely better, though. Finder scopes were useful to get

to the general area, but I usually used the main scope at

its lowest possible magnifi cation to narrow in on the loca-

tion before switching to higher power. I needed at least

150 × to see any of the quasars on the list, and I often used

magnifi cations of 250× or even higher.

Wide-fi eld eyepieces helped me identify the patterns of

the fi eld stars when observing at high power. For exam-

ple, I used 12-mm and 7-mm Naglers in the 16-inch scope.

My Maksutov has a drive, which was extremely helpful

for this activity, but my 16-inch Dob does not. That made

B3 0754+394

2419

LYNX

7 h 50 m

+38°

+40°

8 h 00 m 7 h 40 m

Star magnitudes

6

5

7

8

9

10

B3 0754+394

Ton 951

66

χ

φ^1

φ^2

ι

σ^1

σ^2

σ^3 α

β

χ

φ

ο

π ρ

σ

υ

76

α

31

38

LYNX

Castor

Pollux

10 UMa

2683

2782

2419

GEMINI

CANCER

9 h 30 m 9 h 00 m 8 h 30 m 8 h 00 m 7 h 30 m

+40°

+35°

+30°

Star magnitudes

3

2

4

5

6

7

Object RA Dec. Const. Mag (v) Redshift Distance Notes

UGC 545 0 h 53 m 35.1s +12° 41 ′ 34 ′′ Psc 14.1 0.061 830 ml-y Not yet attempted

HS 0624+6907 6 h 30 m 02.6s +69° 05 ′ 03 ′′ Cam 14.2 0.370 4,100 m-ly H, P, 16-inch

B3 0754+394 7 h 58 m 00.1s +39° 20 ′ 29 ′′ Lyn 14.4 0.096 1,300 ml-y M, V, 16-inch

Ton 951 8 h 47 m 42.5s +3 4° 45 ′ 05 ′′ Lyn 14.5 0.064 860 ml-y E, V, 16-inch

4C +29.45 11 h 59 m 31.9s +29° 14 ′ 44 ′′ UMa 13.7 – 18.5 0.729 6,600 ml-y F, V, 16-inch

PG 1211+143 12 h 14 m 17.7s +14° 03 ′ 13 ′′ Com 14.2 0.085 1,100 ml-y M, P, 16-inch

3C 273 12 h 29 m 06.7s +2° 03 ′ 09 ′′ Vir 12.8 0.158 2,000 ml-y E, P, 10-inch

PG 1351+640 13 h 53 m 15.7s +63° 45 ′ 46 ′′ Dra 14.8 0.088 1,200 ml-y H, P, 16-inch

Mrk 478 14 h 42 m 07.4s +35° 26 ′ 22 ′′ Boo 14.6 0.077 1,000 ml-y H, V, 16-inch

IRAS 17596+4221 18 h 01 m 09.1s +42° 21 ′ 44 ′′ Her 14.5 0.054 740 ml-y Not yet attempted

KUV 18217+6419 18 h 21 m 57.2s +64° 20 ′ 36 ′′ Dra 13.8 0.297 3,400 ml-y M, P, 10-inch

RX J23273+1524 23 h 27 m 22.2s +15° 24 ′ 36 ′′ Peg 12.6 0.044 600 ml-y E, P, 10-inch

B3 0754

+394

Observing notes: E = easy, M = medium, H = hard, F = failed.

Locations: P = Princeton, V = Vorhees.

Instruments: 10-inch Maksutov, 16-inch Dobsonian.

Bright Quasars in

the Northern Sky

Magnitudes are from various sources; see skypub.com/quasarhunt.

Most of the objects are variable, but they’re usually within 0.2 magnitude of the stated values.

Light travel-time distances in megalight-years were computed with Ned Wright’s online Cosmology

Calculator, assuming H 0 = 69 and OmegaM = 0.29.

Obs Quasars2.indd 36 12/23/13 11:34 AM