NGC 3079 and Double Quasar (Clint Lemasters)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: NGC 3073 · NGC 3079

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NGC 3079 and Double Quasar

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NGC 3079 and Double Quasar

The Furthest Object I’ve Ever Imaged…
Galaxy NGC 3079 sits at the center of my image, but it’s only being used for aesthetic purposes and to find a hidden treasure. The image is a 4 hour compilation of 3 minute sub exposures taken from my backyard in Mobile, AL.
Here's the historic treasure: Quasar QSO 0957+561 appears in this image as two separate points of light. The light has been gravitationally lensed by a galaxy sitting about halfway between us and the quasar. This lensing effect was proposed by Einstein in 1936 and thus called an “Einstein Ring” for the separate images such lensing can produce. It wasn’t until this quasar was discovered in 1979 that gravitational lensing of light was proven. Sources differ, but the distance of the quasar is about 9 BILLION light years. The light collected last night left the quasar before our earth was formed and even before our sun first turned on its light 4.5 billion years ago.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5529658
PixInsight job	PA39YURFTVU2ZBQNTM3BXXW9ADEJ7TDW
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	10h01m57s.459
RA (top/left)	10h04m54s.380
RA (top/right)	10h04m35s.294
RA (bottom/right)	09h58m57s.501
RA (bottom/left)	09h59m22s.935

Dec (center)	+55°39′59″.99
Dec (top/left)	+55°17′54″.28
Dec (top/right)	+56°04′57″.51
Dec (bottom/right)	+56°01′49″.37
Dec (bottom/left)	+55°14′49″.58

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NGC 3079 and Double Quasar

NGC 3079 and Double Quasar

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NGC 3079 and Double Quasar

NGC 3079 and Double Quasar

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