2000 Apr 23: Repeat visit to 3C273 plus nearby variable quasar 3C279 at 6 billion lightyears and gravitationally lensed quasar Q1115+080 at 11 billion lightyears range! Only component A of the latter at Mv 15.9 is recorded - components B & C at Mv 18.6 -19 unresolved. WPO images rescaled to match POSS images from the Internet.
Note that the WPO unfiltered image of 3C279 appears brighter than the POSS image and BAA/TA so advised on 2000 Apr 25 by email - this quasar can brighten at 'outburst' by nearly 7 magnitudes. [2000 May 4 reported in 'outburst' via BAA webpage].
2000
Apr 21: First observation for some weeks due to overcast and
rain. A return to Virgo and quasar 3C273 some 28 months later [to the day!]
of my first successful redshifted spectrum - this time as a simple 60 second
exposure of the field - north is 'up'.