Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3073  ·  NGC 3079
Q0957+561, twin Quasar by gravitational lens, UN73
Q0957+561, twin Quasar by gravitational lens
Powered byPixInsight

Q0957+561, twin Quasar by gravitational lens

Q0957+561, twin Quasar by gravitational lens, UN73
Q0957+561, twin Quasar by gravitational lens
Powered byPixInsight

Q0957+561, twin Quasar by gravitational lens

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Strongly cropped this seems to be the sensible limit of my setup.

The enlargement in the pic has been drizzled.

The twin Quasar Q0957+561 in Ursa Major is actually one Quasar where a gravitational lens produces two images of the Quasar. Light distance travel is around 9 billion years. The difference of the light travel time of both Quasar images is 1,14 years. Their magnitudes are 16.5 and 16.7, they are 6" apart. The main component of the gravitational lens is a galaxy cluster with a light travel time of around 4 billion years. It is invisible in the pic with the brightest galaxy being 21.9 mag.

Although the picture itself is unspectacular, I´m quite thrilled of being able to capture the effect of a gravitational lens and an object that is in such an enormous distance.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Q0957+561, twin Quasar by gravitational lens, UN73