False-colour optical image of the quasar BR 1202- 07, which appears as the bright yellow circle at left. BR 1202-07 is the brightest observed quasar to date (April 1991) & therefore also the brightest object in the Universe. Light from the quasar has taken 12 billion years to reach Earth. The quasar was found using Cambridge University's Automatic Plate Measuring (APM) facility to screen optical plates taken by the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia for probable candidates. Next, the Isaac Newton telescope on La Palma was used to measure the red shift of promising objects; among them was BR 1202-07 (red shift 4.70).