Trans-Neptunian Object 50000 Quaoar

[SkyViking]

Hi all, the other day I disassembled my Losmandy G-11, cleaned it thoroughly, adjusted the worms and re-greased it in the hope of improving its tracking performance which has indeed noticeably dropped over the years.
Voila - after firing it up again I have been able to take unguided 1 minute exposures with perfectly round stars. Since I don't have any guiding equipment this ability is rather essential for me... :) (Lately I have been limited to around 30 seconds max before stars were getting blurred).
So armed with my newly regained tracking ability I went hunting for an object which have previously eluded me: Trans-Neptunian Object 50000 Quaoar which is currently traversing through Serpens Cauda while shining at a measly magnitude 19.

Image is available here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/126160527/original
Image details:
Taken 02/07/2010 @ 22:30 NZST with 10" Newtonian f/5 and ToUCam Pro SC1, no filters, no guiding.

The image is quite noisy, but this target is really at the very limit of what I can pick up with 1 minute exposures. I wasn't even sure if I got it until I started processing.

Quaoar was discovered on June 4, 2002 by astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the California Institute of Technology.
Quaoar is currently estimated to be 890 ± 70 km in diameter and orbits at about 6 billion kms from the Sun with an orbital period of 287 years. Quaoar has one known moon, Weywot, which was discovered in 2007. Weywot is estimated to have a diameter of 74 kms, orbiting Quaoar at a distance of 14,500 kms.
Quaoar is the largest body that is classified as a cubewano, which is a Kuiper belt object that orbits beyond Neptune and is not controlled by an orbital resonance with the giant planet. Cubewanos have semi-major axes in the 40-50 AU range and do not cross Neptune’s orbit. The name "cubewano" derives from the first trans-Neptunian object found after Pluto and Charon: "(15760) 1992 QB1". Later similar objects were called "QB1-o's", or "cubewanos".

Hope you enjoy!
Comments, critique etc welcome as always.

Regards,
Rolf

[Dennis]

Excellent work Rolf, a very faint object indeed. I half expected to see an image of Weywot too! LOL!

Glad to hear of the improvement to the G-11 after your strip down and rebuild. Quite amazing imagery for a low cost, non-cooled sensor.

Cheers

Dennis

[seeker372011]

:bowdown:

[JD2439975]

That's pushing the edge of the solar system Rolf & your equipment too, nicely captured.

Glad to hear you've doubled your exposure times, that'll make a difference on some of these faint fuzzies.

[Troy]

Faint object indeed well done :thumbsup:

[renormalised]

Rolf....master of the webcam astrophotographers!!!!:):)

Excellent work:)

[gary]

Hi Rolf,

Thank you for posting a link to your incredibly impressive observation of this faint
object, made all the more remarkable given the modest equipment used
to capture the image, which is also testimony to your skill in using the tools at hand.

The background information you provided was fascinating and it motivated this
reader sufficiently to Google in order to learn a little more. An excellent Wikipedia
article was found here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50000_Quaoar
and a recent short paper by Fraser and Brown, (Brown and Triujillio were the original discovers),
entitled "Quaoar: a Rock in the Kuiper Belt" here -
http://arxiv4.library.cornell.edu/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1003/1003.5911v1.pdf
Some additional background here on The Planetary Society web site -
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002420/

Thanks again!

Best Regards

Gary
Mt Kuring-Gai NSW Australia

[paulF]

Hi Rolf and hat off for the mighty effort :)
Apologies if this sounds a bit silly but when you say unguided exposures for 1 minute, do you mean that every 1 minute you stop capturing, realign the scope to your target and then start capturing for another minute ....

[SkyViking]

Thanks Dennis, I'm not surprised you were the first to comment :)
I'm definitely happy with my improved tracking - now of course it has been couded over since then, hmm...
Let's see about Weywot, LOL :D


Thank you Narayan, glad you liked it :)


Thank you Justin, yes hopefully I can now image even fainter fuzzies! ;)


Thanks Troy :)


Thank you Carl - I wonder how many deepsky webcam astrophotographers are left these days :P, I should move on I guess, maybe next year.


Thank you very much Gary, interesting reads there. I'm glad you enjoyed it, it's always fun to image something not seen too often.


Thank you Paul, when I say unguided I mean that I don't use any auto-guiding, so I rely solely on the RA tracking of my mount. This usually limits my exposures to 1-2 minutes before stars get blurred. So auto-guiding is very much the preferred technique when taking long exposures, but that also requires extra equipment.

[stephenb]

Hi Rolf, firstly a great effort there chap. You are photographing the realms of the solar system which almost all of us will never see visually, let alone, photographically.

Not putting your experience and expertise down in any way Rolf, but doesn't your setup prove to many of what you can acheive with a good ol' 10" Newt and a webcam BUT a decent, good quality, well-aligned mount? It's a cry you hear go out to many amateurs who want to start AP/imaging - get a decent mount and the sky's the limit!

[Ric]

Blimey, that is amazing work Rolf.

Top stuff indeed.

[SkyViking]

Thank you Stephen :) :) Yes, I'm actually surprised that the owners of the more sophisticated cams don't go for these exotic targets more often - it's quite amazing what can be picked up with even quite basic equipment. And you're right, a sturdy mount is certainly the key to successful imaging!


Thanks very much Ric :)