Quasar in Draco
Quasars are the very active nuclei of relatively young galaxies, emitting incredible amounts of enery that allows them to be seen at great distances. Markarian 205 is estimated to be about 1 billion light years away, making it one of the most distant objects I have ever seen through my 18-inch telescope. Only a handful of quasars are bright enough to be seen in amateur telescopes.
Quasars are not impressive to look at. They look just like stars (as can be seen in this image), and it only through a spectral analysis of their redshifts that their vast distances are revealed.
As this image shows, Markarian 205 appears to be located within a spiral arm of the galaxy NGC 4319. Although there was once controversy about whether the two objects are actually close together, there is now good evidence that NGC 4319 is a foreground galaxy, a mere 80 million light years away.
| Magnitude | 14.5 |
| Distance (light yrs) | 1 billion |
| Right Ascension | 12:21.7 |
| Declination | +75 19 |
| Field of View | 29' x 22' |
Image details: Exposure times of 45 minutes luminance and 30 minutes each of red, green and blue, taken with an SBIG ST-8300M imager and a 14" Meade LX850 telescope at f/6.
September 2018