Quasar "Einstein Cross"
South of the constellation Pegasus (the so-called autumn quadrangle) there is a very special object: it is a quasar with the name "Einstein's Cross".
If you like to use numbers, you may call the QSO "Q2237+030" - but that doesn't sound as nice...
The quasar itself is 9.85 billion lightyears away from us. This results from the redshift of z=1.695. Directly in its line of sight there is a galaxy in a
distance of only 400 million light years, which splits the light of the quasar behind it into four nearly identical images. Super exciting in my opinion.
Looks also really great on images with large telescopes! Just type it into google and have a look at the pictures.
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Not sooo much of all this is visible in a 20" telescope though. The galaxy itself was found quickly and is actually easily visible with averted vision.
It appears as a faint oval patch of light with a brighter center.
If you increase the magnification to 270x, the galaxy gets more and more interesting. With good seeing you can see an almost star-shaped point
directly in the core area. Wow! This is the quasar - quite faint, but easy to hold. You also get the impression that the tiny star in the center is not
quite point-like, but that could also be due to the bright central area of the small galaxy.
Nothing can be seen from the four individual images, for that you need a little more aperture and above all a much higher magnification.
