Re: Einstein's cross

The seeing and transparency has to be very good to resolve it¹s 2 arc-sec
size. On two observing occasions (at Fremont Peak and DARC) with my 24²
Starmaster using 600X, I noticed the object had a sparkling appearance with
detail that was changing. Two of the four opposing appendages visible to me
with averted vision most of the time. The other two fainter one¹s were
popping in and out of averted view only once in a while. It¹s located at
the center of a mag. 14 galaxy and at under 300X appears as just another
uninteresting galaxy with a stellar core. Very high power brings out its
uniqueness.

Peter Natscher
Monterey

From: Julien Lecomte <julien.lecomte@No-Spam>
Reply-To: "[TAC]" <tac@No-Spam>
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 09:51:02 -0800
To: "[TAC]" <tac@No-Spam>
Subject: [TAC] Einstein's cross

The gravitational lensing object known as Einstein's cross is featured
on APOD today. I searched the TAC archives and found these reports
from our very own Jay Freeman (using his 14" Celestron SCT):

http://observers.org/reports/1998/98.12.19.3.html
http://observers.org/reports/1999/99.08.11.html

and here's another one from Bob Czerwinski (using his 14" Starmaster
dobsonian):

http://observers.org/reports/2001/2001.08.18.3.html

So it looks like, under the right conditions, an experienced observer
can visually see it as a non-stellar object, not quite round, with a
scope in the 14" range. I might give it a try this fall with my
(hopefully ready by then) 16" scope. Has anybody on this list ever
been able to see it as 4 clearly separated components?

Cheers!
Julien

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-- 
Who's observing/imaging where? http://observers.org/OI-calendar/
GSSP is coming, July 10-14 http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
TAC's imaging mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TAC-Imaging/