[AZ-Observing] Re: Most Distant Galaxy, 3C 273 in a Pronto

\Brian, yes I attended the SAC meeting and enjoyed your "Minimal 
Astronomy" talk.  I think it important that we understand you don't need 
a large aperature telescope to enjoy astronomy.  Now, speaking of 3C 
273, it is visible from sites that are less than your pristine 
location.  I saw it in my 8" around this time of year from a desert  
site.  The finder was a 17.5" belonging to Steve Coe, yes I'm dating the 
observation.  The 2 billion ly distance was just astounding and I stood 
there just pondering the enormity of the distance.  Perhaps I'll give it 
a try tonight - if I can get my truck setup for observing by then.

Thanks and clear skies,
aj

Brian Skiff wrote:

>     Those who attended my talk at the SAC meeting last Friday extolling the
>virtues of "minimal astronomy" may find this of (minimal) interest.
>
>----------
>
>     "Most Distant Galaxy" is the title of an atmospheric jazz piece by the
>soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, my favorite jazz composer.  In a setting
>for soprano, bass, and electronic percussion, she evokes not so much loneliness
>as a keening, isolated alone-ness, for which a subtly turned blues phrase is
>particularly apt.
>     A much more prosaic enterprise tonight for me was hunting down the
>brightest quasar, 3C 273, in my little 70mm Pronto telescope.  Though not
>nearly the most distant galaxy known, it is probably the most distant object
>visible in such a small instrument.  The redshift is about z = 0.16,
>corresponding to about 2 billion light-years.  It is not especially faint for
>this telescope, so this was mainly an exercise to be able to say I'd done it.
>     As usual I observed from the 'true dark' Lowell Anderson Mesa site,
>in this instance from the observing floor of our 1.1-m telescope, with which
>I am doing spectroscopy tonight.  Len Bright of the Lowell staff is running the
>seeing monitor a hundred meters away, which at the time of the observations was
>showing image quality of just 0".7---another nice night!  Temperature was a
>balmy 39F = 5C.  By way of preparation, I had Alan MacRobert's article in the
>May 2005 issue of 'Sky & Telescope', and also a large-scale chart from the
>AAVSO Web site that shows the immediate field along with magnitudes for stars
>in the area.
>
>  
>


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