Aug. 5, 1962: First Quasar Discovered  By Randy Alfred Email
08.05.08 A down-to-earth flub nearly caused astronomers to miss
their big chance to pinpoint the first-known quasar, 3C 273.
Courtesy Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Until the development of radio astronomy in the 1940s, our
knowledge of the universe outside our own solar system was
pretty much restricted to objects that emitted light in or near
the visible spectrum. Then, astronomers began discovering
objects that emitted radio waves. Excitement.  They also found
some points in the distant skies that emitted both visible light
and radio frequencies. Big excitement.  Astronomers Allan
Sandage and Thomas Matthews were looking around in 1960 when
they discovered a blue star-like object that sends out
particularly intense radio waves. Big mystery.  British radio
astronomer Cyril Hazard applied his method of observation to the
growing puzzle in 1962. The technique, lunar occultation, used
the well-calculated orbital path of the moon