Last week Cord Scholz challenged me with what I though was an impossible image, the Einstein Cross. After trying for several nights under less than ideal conditions, and getting no resolution of the quasar, I got one night of very good seeing where I was able to capture it with partial resolution. The image of the quasar itself took 15 hours of total exposure.
The object is centered on a 15th mag galaxy which is lensing the more distant quasar. The quasar is split into 4 parts by this foreground galaxy.
It was my most difficult object yet because of the extreme faintness, and the close separation of the components. In the closeup image I have compared it to the north component of eLyra. The 4 components of the Einstein Cross are separated by 0.9 arc seconds.
Roland Christen
The object is centered on a 15th mag galaxy which is lensing the more distant quasar. The quasar is split into 4 parts by this foreground galaxy.
It was my most difficult object yet because of the extreme faintness, and the close separation of the components. In the closeup image I have compared it to the north component of eLyra. The 4 components of the Einstein Cross are separated by 0.9 arc seconds.
Roland Christen
Attached Image:
