MSH 04-12 is a fairly bright quasar in
Eridanus. This one's really obscure, so if you observe this object
you can rest assured that few others have done so.
The redshift of this
quasar is 0.57, which corresponds to a light travel time of about 5
billion years, some three times as far as the most observed nearby
quasar, 3C 273. I found it easy too see in my 18" and it
should be visible from dark locations in telescopes as small as 8
inches.
The quasar lies about 3o
to the northeast of Zaurak (Gamma Eri). The field of view above is
about 30o and stars are drawn to 9.5 magnitude. Up and down
are inverted to match a finder with a diagonal.
The field in an 18" at 94x, as seen in a 27mm Panoptic. North is
down and east is right.
This DSS image from SkyView shows a 30' field around the quasar
(indicated by lines). North is down and east is right. |
