Dwarf planet 136199 Eris (8-9 Oct 2013)

[Lee]

This one started out as 'how hard can it be!'.... after all, Pluto is easy, Mag 14-15, shows up on quick subs.... Eris is Mag 18.7 - not much fainter?? :lol:

I tried a 10x30s stack first, and thought I had it - wrong.... so did a pair of 20x2min 2x2 binned subs on successive nights this week. Eris showed up eventually in the stack (after some serious stretching...) - certainly not visible over the noise in single subs, with my setup/subs.

Anyway - here she is - 136199 Eris, the largest dwarf planet orbiting the sun. It has a highly eccentric orbit, taking 560 years per orbit, at distances between 38 and 97 AU. She is cruising in now from her 1977 aphelion, and will reach perihelion again in 2257 (give or take!)....

A couple of asteroids showed up also, (16399) 1983 RF2 (Mag 16.1) on both nights can be seen traversing obliquely across the top right part of the frame, and what I think is (31177) 1997 XH11 at the top of frame on 9 Oct.

These subs were taken with Eris at an altitude between 35-45deg above horizon, would obviously be better to leave this object until as high as possible....

Enjoy....

[Dennis]

Hello, Lee

Good work, at 18.67 Eris is indeed faint. As fate would have it, as I read your post I am just some 5 mins into acquiring a 10 minute sub-frame under the muggy, light polluted skies of Brisbane.

Hopefully by the end of tonight I will have been able to dig this one out of the background muck. Nice little galaxy by the way!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Lee]

Thanks Dennis - I'm sure you'll dig it up no problems.... :)
Was a nice little bonus galaxy centre stage.... I was secretly hoping to bag a SN in it on night 2 also.... :D

[Dennis]

Hi Lee

Well, the first 10 min sub just downloaded (no Darks or Flats yet) and I cannot see Eris even when I invert the image like you did – your images display Eris clearly and unmistakably.:thumbsup:

I’m operating at F12 so maybe something might pop out when I stack a few subs, otherwise, I’ll just treat the session as an exercise in auto guiding! :lol:

I was surprised at how much Eris moved in your animation over the course of an evening. Great to catch a couple of asteroids too, quite busy up there eh! And yes, a SN would have been nice!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

what a cool result

[bkm2304]

Great capture, Lee. Great to see people chasing the twilight zone lurkers at the end of the solar system!

Richard.:thumbsup:

[Lee]

Thanks gents....
I wonder if we'll ever get a probe out to this one??

[Quark]

A most impressive result there Lee, great to eek out such a denizen of the Solar System.

Regards
Trevor

[John Hothersall]

That's a proud catch of an icey wanderer, great to get it in the bag.

John.

[Lee]

Thanks for the kind comments Trevor, John.... :)