MONITORING QUASAR PROPER MOTIONS

Five closely associated quasars in Cetus, which could easily fit within the frame of a CCD with a field of view greater than 10 arcminutes. This quasar cluster would be the ideal set to monitor for proper motion because the density is particularly high; a factor greater than 60 over the average quasar density (Arp et al., 1983). Coordinates of QSO 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 are in table below.

OTHER QUASAR TRIANGLES

Results of a computer search of quasars brighter than 18th magnitude in Burbidge et al. (1993) that form a triangle with other quasars within 20 arcminutes. Each triangle side cannot exceed this limit. The side of most CCD chips on standard amateur telescopes subtends approximately 15 arcminutes on average. Therefore the longest length of each triangle should be able to fit comfortably within the chip diagonal.

  QSO       Other       RA (2000)   DEC (2000)    V   (B-V) (U-B)  Z(EM)
            names

0107-025  QSO 10       1 10 13.19   -2 19 52.9  18.2               0.956
0107-025  QSO  8       1 10 14.59   -2 16 58.0  18.4               0.726
0107-025  QSO  9       1 10 16.29   -2 18 51.2  17.4               0.952
0107-025  QSO 11       1 10 30.19   -2 14 55.0                     1.891
0107-025  QSO 12       1 10 48.05   -2 15 25.4                     1.24
(Note QSO 10=PB 8553, QSO 9=PB 6291)

1258+287  PB 3207     13  0 28.73   28 30  8.5  17.38   .30  -.80  0.648
1258+286  PB 3214     13  0 48.23   28 23 19.8  17.75*  .07 -1.12  1.922
1258+285  PB 3216     13  1  1.52   28 19 48.1  17.4 *  .30        1.355

1623+271  KP 72       16 25 11.14   27  3 12.2  18.0               1.44
1623+269  4C 26.48    16 25 14.32   26 50 26.7  17.5 *             0.779
1623+268  KP 76       16 25 47.71   26 44 42.6  18                 2.467
1623+268  KP 77       16 25 48.26   26 47  9.7  17.3               2.526

1241+176              12 44 10.85   17 21  4.6  15.38              1.273
1242+178              12 44 58.85   17 32 58.1  17.9               0.265
1242+176              12 45 26.82   17 20 51.8  18.0               1.857

1228+078  KP 16       12 30 34.24    7 33  5.4  17.47  -.06  -.99  1.816
1228+076  KP 17       12 31  7.92    7 24 38.5  17.5               1.878
1228+077  KP 18       12 31 20.51    7 25 57.6  17.59  -.01  -.07  2.391

0056-001  PHL 923      0 59  5.49    0  6 51.2  17.02   .20  -.70  0.717
0056+001               0 59 18.25    0 25 19.1  18.0               0.613
0057+000               1  0  2.31    0 16 42.3  17.2               0.776

1429-006              14 31 43.69   -0 50 11.5  17.8               1.179
1429-008              14 32 29.12   -1  6 15.9  17.74              2.078
1429-006              14 32 31.05   -0 52 28.9  18.2               0.361
1430-007              14 32 44.33   -0 59 15.1  17.8               1.022
1430-006              14 33 21.33   -0 54 45.5  16.4               1.116

0048-015               0 50 51.51   -1 17 37.3  17.2               0.763
0048-013  PHL 857      0 51  2.47   -1  2 43.4  17.9               1.87
0049-013               0 51 35.25   -1  7 10.0  17.8               1.560

0037-018  UM 264       0 40 18.22   -1 37 22.4  18                 2.34
0037-019               0 40 18.31   -1 40 59.6  17.73              0.296
0038-019  UM 266       0 41 26.01   -1 43 16.0  16.86              1.674

0050-253  MD1:85       0 52 44.67  -25  6 51.6  15.9    .20        2.18
0050-254               0 53  8.07  -25 11 22.4  17.6               1.019
0051-253               0 53 53.61  -25  4  6.1  17.5               1.444

0100-423  B16.09       1  3  4.90  -42  3 57.1  17.7               2.33
0100-423  MD6:138      1  3  5.03  -42  4  3.6  18.0               1.88
0101-422               1  3 18.97  -42  0 48.3  17.5               1.90

2134-426              21 37 47.89  -42 26 11.6  17.9               1.804
2135-427              21 38 24.04  -42 30 16.1  17.2               0.250
2135-428              21 38 30.12  -42 39 56.8  17.91*       -.78  1.46

0315-553  MZZ 4875     3 16 50.25  -55 11  9.9  17.91              2.531
0316-555  MZZ 8525     3 17 32.73  -55 20 25.3  17.97              0.406
0316-555  MZZ 6346     3 18 18.74  -55 20  1.8  17.56              0.871

QSO = Quasar identification number
Other names = Alternate identification
RA=Coordinate Right Ascension in hours, minutes and seconds (preccessed to epoch J2000.0)
DEC=Coordinate Declination in degrees, minutes and seconds (J2000)
V=Visual magnitude.
(B-V)=Excess of blue color over visual color
(U-V)=Excess of ultraviolet color over visual color
Z(EM)=Redshift derived from emission lines

Triangles are sorted by decreasing declination. For precision astrometry, ideal targets should transit near zenith at some point in the year. An observer should choose a triangle whose declination roughly corresponds to their latitude. These quasars have no published proper motions, however the laser star theory predicts many will have significant proper motion. Many amateur astronomers are qualified enough to confirm this prediction.

REFERENCES

Surdej,J., Swings,J.P., Henry,A., Arp,H., Kruszewski,A. and Pedersen,H.: 1983, Proc. 24th Leige Intl.Ap.Coll., p. 355.

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