New distance record for Kenley

[Roy Easto]

On the 31st Dec 2025 three of us at Kenley tried to image the
gravitationally lensed quasar known as Andromeda's Parachute.

The object is four images of the same gravitationally lensed quasar over
around 3 arc seconds and magnitude around 16. The object has a redshift
of z=2.341 which puts it at around 11 billion light years away. So the
light we detected has been travelling for more than twice the age of the
Solar System.

We took 13 exposures 30 seconds each stacked and registered with
DeepSkyStacker along with a flat field. The resulting 16 bit tiff file
was imported into gimp for colour stretching and clipping before saving
here.

Lots more details of the object can be found here:
https://deepskycorner.ch/obj/j014709+463037.en.php

Later in 2026 we might try to image OQ172 which is further back in time
still but that is in Bootes so we'll have to wait until Spring.

Kind regards,

Roy

[Graeme Coates]

Hope you're well Roy. A long time since I had a go imaging at home here in W Oxfordshire (this was 2018 - absolutely no time in recent past, mirrors needs realuminising now etc...) but OQ172 should be well in reach.

Though not specifically trying, my furthest stands at z=2.83 for this QSO near M96. With mag(g) of +20.6 this does need a bit more exposure of course. (This was was 7 hrs (84*5min) on a 14" f4.53 with a KAI-2020...). A more modern (at least than than 20yr old) sensor would make this easier of course...

Graeme 

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[Roy Easto]

A great picture. Thanks for sharing and good to hear from you again. I think we were closing in on capturing magnitude 20 objects many years ago with the 18 inch telescope but focussing, guiding and finding objects was so hard back then. Now with the 6.5 inch refractor I am hoping that we can get down to mag 19. We will have to work hard on focussing but tracking and stacking is so much easier now.

I chose OQ172 as the next target as it was the distance record holder in the Guinness book of records when I was a teenager.

Roy

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