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Old 03-07-2011, 08:36 AM
Dennis
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The hunt for Quaoar continues…

Hello,

In the dim outer reaches of our solar system, I am still trying to obtain a satisfactory image of the Minor Planet (50000) Quaoar. I had an opportunity to set up on Friday and grab 3 x 15 min frames in between clouds, although Quaoar was uncomfortably close to a blazingly bright mag 16.68 star, which made the job of digging it out of the data that much more challenging.

Although I am confident that a have a good candidate for Quaoar, it would be nice to grab another image once it has moved on, to a less densely populated region, over the next week or so.

Quaoar lies a billion kilometers beyond Pluto and is a Magnitude 18.99 Minor Planet classified as a Trans-Neptunian Object.
  • Orbit Period: 284.9 years
  • Earth Distance: 42.2 AU
  • Sun Distance: 43.1 AU
  • Perihelion Distance: 41.6 AU
  • Aphelion Distance: 45.0 AU
  • Diameter: 560 - 1800 km
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...7oct_newworld/
  • The 1st frame is a re-sampled view from the ST2000XM 1600x1200 original down to 800x600.
  • The 2nd frame is an inverted image of the 1st frame.
  • The 3rd frame displays a 10x10 arcmin overlay obtained from the US Naval Observatory Precision Measuring Machine Data Archive at http://www.nofs.navy.mil/
  • The 4th frame is a crop of the region containing Quoar with the USNO chart as an overlay.
  • The 5th frame is an enlarged crop of the region showing Quaoar.
  • The 6th frame is a screen capture from The SkyX Pro showing the calculated position of Quaoar.
Thanks for looking!

Cheers

Dennis
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (Quaoar Full Frame resize 800.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Quaoar Full Frame resize Inverted 800.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Quaoar Full Frame resize Inverted USNO Chart Overlay 800.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Quaoar Inverted USNO Overlay Crop 800.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Quaoar Inverted Zoomed Crop 800.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (The SkyX Pro.jpg)
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  #2  
Old 03-07-2011, 08:56 AM
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renormalised (Carl)
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Good work!!!

Keep looking.

What you need is a blink comparator. You'll find it much easier with one.
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Old 03-07-2011, 09:05 AM
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DavidU (Dave)
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great work.Doing the impossible again.
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Old 03-07-2011, 07:25 PM
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All I can say is...
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Old 03-07-2011, 08:35 PM
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h0ughy (David)
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My goodness i hate to see you go after something obscure Dennis after this bright object
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Old 04-07-2011, 03:10 PM
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Dennis, "The Legend Continues", What a super effort.

Reckon you have all the attributes of a Celestial Sherlock Holmes Dennis, I have nothing but admiration for how you manage to hunt down the denizens of the Solar System.

Top Stuff
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Trevor
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Old 04-07-2011, 03:42 PM
Dennis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised View Post
Good work!!!
Keep looking.
What you need is a blink comparator. You'll find it much easier with one.
Thank Carl, although I do have a blink comparator in CCDSoft – what I am missing is images of Quaoar on different nights so I can blink them. Those pesky clouds have been unkind to me during the current Quaoar season!

Cheers

Dennis
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Old 04-07-2011, 03:43 PM
Dennis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidU View Post
great work.Doing the impossible again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by troypiggo View Post
All I can say is...
Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy View Post
My goodness i hate to see you go after something obscure Dennis after this bright object
Thanks Dave, Troy and David, your kind words and nice emoticons are much appreciated!

Cheers

Dennis
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  #9  
Old 04-07-2011, 03:47 PM
Dennis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quark View Post
Dennis, "The Legend Continues", What a super effort.
Reckon you have all the attributes of a Celestial Sherlock Holmes Dennis, I have nothing but admiration for how you manage to hunt down the denizens of the Solar System.
Top Stuff
Regards
Trevor
Thanks Trevor – these projects are not as difficult as they look!

Having a good GoTo mount, a decent CCD camera and a planetarium program such as The SkyX Pro makes these outings quite enjoyable and much less daunting than I had imagined.

Cheers

Dennis
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Old 04-07-2011, 03:54 PM
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Wonderful catch Dennis, a time lapse over some months will look good. All the best.
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Old 04-07-2011, 04:10 PM
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The emoticons are not really enough. What you're able to capture is beyond words and emoticons. Truly awestruck.
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Old 04-07-2011, 04:35 PM
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Very cool Dennis, I'd say you have cracked it

Mike
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Old 04-07-2011, 05:24 PM
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Very inspiring.

John.
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Old 04-07-2011, 05:35 PM
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Very impressive Dennis, wonder if you have notified Minor Planet Centre for confirmation. It is not a discovery but the data could be useful maybe.
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  #15  
Old 04-07-2011, 09:55 PM
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Quote:
blazingly bright mag 16.68 star


Very cool project Dennis
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