An ultraluminous quasar with a twelve-billion-solar-mass black hole at redshift 6.30

The most luminous quasar  (quasi stellar radio sources) currently known is reported in the latest version of  Nature.
At the "borders" of the universe, 12.8 billion light years from earth, only 900 million years after the big bang this Quaser was formed. The massive black hole has a mass of 12 billion solar mass. It's not the most massive one (cfr 39 billion solar mass) but in comparison with the black hole in our milky way of 4.1 million solar mass, it's gigantic.

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 can still be seen in constellation Perseus near Cassiopeia. Estimated magnitude 6.

Venus and Mars at the evening sky

After a couple of days cloudy skies, this evening the sky was clear to observe Venus and Mars at the evening sky. Venus and Mars close to each other in the West and the moon up and east (31% ).

Venus and Mars at the evening sky

The weather conditions are far from ideal with the upcoming fog.  I was able to oberve both Mars and Venus at the evening sky 1h after sunset and low in the West. The next days both Mars and Venus will be closer at the sky - hopefully we can observe this as weather forecast doens't look good.

Sunspot 2282

Sunspot 2282, February 15, 2015. Using my Orion XT12 with Barlow x2 and Nikon D60 in ISO 200 and ISO 400. Intensive modification using CS4.

Update Cumulus

Succesfully updated Cumulus software for my Weatherstation Oregon Scientific WMR200. No data loss and the system works fine. Current version of Cumulus Software 1.9.4 build 1099

March 20th, Partial Suneclips

33 days to go and we can witness a partial suneclips. It all starts in the early morning of march, 20th. The moon will hit the suns surface around 9h28 local MET. Maximum of 81% is foreseen around 10h35 and ends at 11h46.

See also Eclips 2015

Venus, Mars and the Moon all at less then 0,5°

Watch this week the sky after sunset in the west - southwest. As from Tuesday Feb 17, Mars and Venus will be close with each other (at the sky of cours) and within 2° for the next week.

On Friday 20/2 and Saterday 21/2 evening,  Mars and Venus will be even as close as 0,25° and the moon will be close to about 0,5°.

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 in Andromeda

Comet Lovejoy arrives in constellation Andromeda, near gamma Andromeda Almaak. Observation within OrionXT12 shows the comet appearing collered blue and faint. As the moon was not yet above the horizon it was easy to spot the comet.

Jupiter at evening sky

Start Trail Winter Constellations

Using Startrails software (see usefull links in this blog) winter constellations Orion & Taurus are stacked into a beautifull star trail.
Total of 29 pictures each 30s taken by Nikon D60 f/4 18mm ISO200.

Winter Constellations Orion & Taurus

Last night winter constellations Orion & Taurus observed. Weather conditions -4°C with low humidity and 1031hPa.
Orion Nebula could be well observed using OrionXT12 with OIII filter.

Details modified using CS4

Limited midification using CS4