Twin Quasar – Gravitational lensing

40mnn exposure (L:8x300s)
Acquired on the 17th of March 2020 with 8″ ONTC


Setup: TS ONTC 200/800, 2″ Feathertouch, AZ-EQ6, QHY163m gain=100, OAG-M, QHYCFW2-M, AstroLink 4 mini. Software: APT, Stellarium, PHD2

A twin quasar!?? gravitationally lensed ?!! Well… it seems to be a good excuse for imaging the field…

Quasars around M98

20mnn exposure (L:4x300s)
Acquired on the 17th of March 2020 with 8″ ONTC


Setup: TS ONTC 200/800, 2″ Feathertouch, AZ-EQ6, QHY163m gain=100, OAG-M, QHYCFW2-M, AstroLink 4 mini. Software: APT, Stellarium, PHD2

This image is a quick capture part of a field already imaged in 2019 with Samyang 135mm lens. At this time, I was very surprised of detecting a quasar with a redshift of 3! Let’s see now what will be detected at 800mm of focal…

Quasars in Virgo cluster

4h40 exposure (L:56x300s)
Acquired on the 28th of February 2019 with Samyang 135mm


Setup: Samyang 135mm F/2, AZ-EQ6, QHY163m gain=100, QHYCFW2-M, AstroLink 4 mini, QHY5L2M. Software: APT, Stellarium scope, EQ MOD, PHD2

In previous post was described a method to identify Quasars using Aladin Destop software.
The method is now applied on this wide field image (central part of Virgo galaxy cluster) which has been annotated accordingly in orange.

Identify Quasars with Aladin

4h40 exposure (L:56x300s)
Acquired on the 28th of February 2019 with Samyang 135mm


QSO1224+1349 et QSO1222.9+1334 – 2 Quasars located in the north of Markarian chain. Samyang 135mm F/2 at F/2.8, QHY163m gain=100

This article suggests a method to identify Quasars objects on personal photos. This method, very simple, uses Aladin Desktop software from Strasbourg astronomical Data Center.