Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Pegasus (Peg)
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3C 454.3 (Blazar in Pegasus), keving
3C 454.3 (Blazar in Pegasus)
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3C 454.3 (Blazar in Pegasus)

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Description

Pictorially this isnt very interesting. However...

This object is estimated to be 7.7 billion (yes billion!) light years away.

It is a quasar/active galaxy whose axis of energetic output is directed towards earth. We therefore get the best 'show' possible...

It changes its brightness every few years and had an active burst in 2014.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3C_454.3

It then reached mag 13.4. I took this shortly afterwards.

What I find fascinating is that, while the light from this object started its journey to my camera before the solar system existed, we can watch the dynamics of its light output over a period of only a few years.

Note that the 'subs' here are from a video whose frames were effectively 1/7th of a second each (the data entry doesn't allow fractional second sub timings)

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3C 454.3 (Blazar in Pegasus), keving