Back in Sept 2006 I managed to record the apparent movement of magnitude 18.7 dwarf planet Eris over 4 consecutive nights. I recently re-visited this data with my newly acquired Photoshop skills and managed to extract an animation of these events. I also surprised myself by “discovering” another (known) asteroid lurking in the data, the magnitude 18.6 object 2000 GO88 which I recorded entering the field (at top) on 19th Sept with 3 x 10 minute exposures and then exiting the same field (at bottom) on 20th Sept, again using 3 x 10 minute exposures – a pure stroke of luck!
On the 20th Sept the magnitude 17.1 asteroid 2003 XY14 flitted across the 6 x 10 minute frames to be followed on 22nd Sept by the magnitude 17.6 asteroid, 1999 SV7. A busy piece of sky!
Eris was discovered on January 5, 2005 and lies some 96.7 AU from the Sun, at roughly three times the distance of Pluto. According to Wiki, with the exception of some comets, Eris and its moon Dysnomia are the most distant known natural objects in the Solar System.
I’ve attached an animation showing only the apparent motion of Eris and also a “flattened” image showing all the asteroid action recorded over the 4 night’s imaging runs. Along with a few faint PGC galaxies, I also managed to identify a magnitude 19.21 star in the field.
If anyone else would like to have a go at recording Eris, I have attached a screen print from SkyTools which shows that from Brisbane, for 2010, the ideal viewing slot extends from Oct to Dec as shown on the YearBar Tab in the Object Information Panel.
Thats fantastic Dennis, congratulations! Excellent image, and indeed a busy patch
I like the detail with the mag19.21 star by the way What's your limiting magnitude with the C9.25 and SBIG cam Dennis? I have reached 19.25-19.50 with the webcam, but that's with a 10 inch. Then again the webcam's QE is supposedly a great deal lower than the SBIG's.
Since I don't use guiding I'm currently limited to 30s exposures due to my G11 mount seriously being in need of some new grease for improved tracking performance... (it used to give me pinpoint stars at up to 4 minutes). With the current 30s I only reach around mag 18.50, but I'll fix the G11 soon and take a 'deep field' with a stack of 3-4min exposures just for the fun of it. It would be great to get beyond mag 20
Thank you all very much for your kind comments, they are much appreciated.
Even though the ST7 is the older parallel model with the smaller TC211 guide chip, it seems that there is still much life left in the old trooper yet; a bit like me!
What's your limiting magnitude with the C9.25 and SBIG cam Dennis?
Hi Rolf
You’ve been turning out some very impressive results with that webcam of yours; must be those clear, sparkling Kiwi skies eh!
With the C9.25 at F6.3 and the SBIG ST7 (30 min sub frames) I think that I once got down to around mag 21.8 from our back garden in suburban Brisbane when looking for Sycorax, one of the moons of Uranus.
That's wonderful work Dennis. I've just recently become interested in Eris just after seeing it mentioned a little on the latest "Voyage to the Planets" series. What a lonely not-so little piece of rock it is. A great result you've shown us here. Congrats!
You’ve been turning out some very impressive results with that webcam of yours; must be those clear, sparkling Kiwi skies eh!
With the C9.25 at F6.3 and the SBIG ST7 (30 min sub frames) I think that I once got down to around mag 21.8 from our back garden in suburban Brisbane when looking for Sycorax, one of the moons of Uranus.
Cheers
Dennis
Thanks Dennis, is great fun to push the equipment to the limit isnt' it.
Mag 21.8 thats impressive! Makes sense also given that my webcam has only around 1/3 the QE of the ST7 (from memory) and you also take longer subs. I must get an SBIG... hopefully next year.
I am utterly amazed at some of the works the people here perform.
Shots like this pique my interest in getting a camera and trying it for myself. If I can come even close to some of the quality images I see here, I'd be more than happy.
Splendid work, as usual Dennis.
