Brightest known double quasar

The newly discovered 16-magnitude double quasar HE 1104-1805 AB is the object at the centre of this CCD image, obtained by Dieter Reimers and collaborators at the ESO New Technology Telescope on May 11, 1993. Component A is the brighter of the two (lower) and B is the fainter (upper). The distance between the two objects is 3.0 arcseconds. This image is a composite of three 200-second exposures through a red filtre. The seeing conditions were mediocre.

The bright object to the left is probably a galactic star. The diffuse, faint object which is seen South-West (below and right) of the quasar is a 21-magnitude galaxy. It is. too far away to be the "lensing" galaxy which·may have caused the splitting of the quasar image. It may be a member of a distant cluster of galaxies of which another is just South-East of the stellar image.
The pixel size is 0.4 arcseconds. North is up and East is to the left

Credit:

ESO

About the Image

Id:eso9304a
Type:Observation
Release date:3 June 1993
Related releases:eso9304
Size:1887 x 1872 px

About the Object

Name:HE 1104-1805
Type:Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN : Quasar
Distance:z=2.319 (redshift)
Constellation:Crater
Category:Quasars and Black Holes

Image Formats

Large JPEG
779.9 KB
Screensize JPEG
326.2 KB

Coordinates

Position (RA):11 6 33.40
Position (Dec):-18° 21' 24.30"

Colours & filters

BandTelescope
Optical
R
New Technology Telescope

Exposure time: 200s