In 1979, Astronomers at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona noticed that two quasars appeared to be very close to each other. To those less versed in deep space objects (like me) quasars, only first identified about 60 years ago, are the brightest objects in the universe. They are powerful light sources created from the rotating violence of matter screaming into supermassive black holes at the center of some galaxies. Through analysis of the spectra of these two quasars it was determined that they were identical in light producing properties!

What the astronomers had found was not two different quasars but a single object. It was apparently the first published observation of a gravitationally lensed object. These were first postulated by Einstein in 1916 although in 1936 he stated that didn’t believe that there would ever be hope of observing such a thing.

The Quasar light follows two distinct paths with the light bent and focused by a galaxy cluster between us and the quasar. The quasar is 8.7 Billion Light Years distant, with the intervening galaxy cluster (the majority of which is far too dim to see that far away) about 3.7 Billion Light Years. The two features are separated by only 6 arc seconds of angle – which requires a telescope with sufficient resolving power.

What is even more wild about the two images is that the light from one arrives about 14 months after the other – after a trip of 8.7 billion years!!! This is due to the slightly different path length of the light creating the two different images.

Imaging Equipment:
-PlaneWave CDK14 at 2,563mm
-Rouz Astro’s CDK14 optical train (https://rouzastro.com/) using Optec Gemini Focuser / Rotator and
Optec Sagitta OAG, ASI 174MM mini Guidecam.
-Mesu Mark II friction drive mount ([url=https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmesu-optics.nl%2Fmesu200_en.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0XpGze8wLCHxbGikjGdsCsrRFio-MJKc_f2uJ_iyF39ZQR8erE9Uu31t0&h=AT08Hs4DG5NEUT293drv8-CeLMpccRKg7CKSmWnR0QqvCINYJs-gwAb8ghCAQE2ExTGhD1UWC945OftlGjzgJbpBge3S2AHTEJ3Q4FUa6_wZ5gWq_cUFxof0RmGyItNrMQ&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT38hxDtjdggEpBIhKp2qiqOpu_QBlkEPVQikmhikAtvYQwteH7wVhYQvT3GMKrhSPHuEQcU5fuEk05Cq3HSe501wXVJxqGx1gl0-NCYHXgJA6PwlbJyOoUXd9MVUTLmzlfo8o69WeVQrAkWTOerCiUMit0AkNJ9mhvUjst9uQvLN7_pWaIB1A]http://mesu-optics.nl/mesu200_en.html[/url])
QHY268M camera
RGB filters