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Visually Sighting Pluto
Has anybody spotted Pluto visually? If so what size scope?
Just for fun I thought I would have a go at attempting to visually spot Pluto. Given I am only using an 8" Dob without any form of DSC's from suburban Canberra, I reckon this will be a staged process.
Firstly I have printed off the excellent finder charts provided by the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ). For orientation I then plotted Pluto's position on SA2K Map 15.
Last night, rather than using our solid tube 8" Dob which is fitted with a 70mm finderscope, I forced myself to use my stringscope which only has a Rigel QuikFinder to start the process of "learning" the starfield surrounding Pluto's location. Using the RASNZ findercharts I found it quite easy to locate where Pluto should be. Could I see it??......nah!.....
I didn't expect to see it last night, as at Mag 14 it will be a stretch for an 8" Dob from a suburban location. However, next Saturday is the CAS deep sky night at a much darker location...............
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