Quasar 3C 273 in Virgo
2005 May 7th from my back garden in
Leigh on Sea, Essex, UK
Televue TVNP101 100mm APO refractor 540mm fl.
Sbig ST4 autoguider
Starlight Xpress HX916 CCD camera
IDAS LPR filter with True Tech RGB colour filters
LRGB image, L3mins 1x1 R1mins 1x1, G1mins 1x1, B1mins 1x1 all 20sec sub
exposures.
The farthest thing you can see with naked eye is Andromeda Galaxy at 2.5 million light years. With binoculars you can spot the Virgo galaxies at about 50 million light years. With an 8 to 10 inch telescope this object 3C 273 is probably the most distant object you can observe visually at 1.9 billion light years !!! This quasar is about 12 to 13th magnitude and its light has been travelling across space to go down my telescope for about half the age of the Earth itself.