It never ceases to amaze me about the number of IceInSpace contributions that keep turning up in Australian Sky & Telescope. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be amazed - there's a nice cross-section of active amateurs within these forums.
Some brilliant efforts all-round.
Re: Mike's comments - yes, I had a few contributions in the September issue.
. It was fun writing the "10th Planet" article *after* we had gone to the printers, and having to replace so many pages with newly edited and designed material. Full credit to the team I work with.
The 2003 UB313 story is still developing. I wrote in my article that the Spitzer Telescope, which observes in the infrared, was not able to detect the newly discovered object. That set an upper limit on how big the object was - for if it was any bigger, infrared radiation would have been detected.
Turns out that there was a (very rare) pointing error with Spitzer - they didn't even have it aimed at the right position! So, they're scheduling another attempt in coming weeks. If Spitzer detects 2003 UB313, then it will mean that the object is larger than 3,000 kilometres in diameter. Hubble observations are also scheduled shortly, which might provide a direct measurement of the size. Just how big? We may find out very soon.