Pluto Animation - 2009/03/23-25

[deadsimple (Ash)]

For some reason I haven't used my telescope in a long time. I've been having a blast just pointing my DSLR at the sky (with tracking but unguided) to see what i can achieve.

After imaging Ceres I figured Pluto is next, cause as we all know magnitude 14+ is logically the next step up from magnitude 6! Didn't even know it was possible until I got that one dot and compared it with Stellarium, what a feeling!

I think I've pushed the limits of this mount. After extensive drift alignment and balancing, the mount still drifts in RA and with blind adjustments every 25 seconds with the silly hand-paddle I can get about 4 minutes of unblurred exposure out of it - up to Mag 15 objects.

Date: 2009/03/23-25
Setup: Canon 450D :: 250mm FL, f/5.6, EQ6 (no GOTO/auto-guiding)
Settings: 240 sec Exp, ISO800, Lights: 4-9, Darks: 2-4

Both regular RGB (indexed) and inverted B&W animations are included below. Enjoy!

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/499274502_g6TmJ-X3-1.gif
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/499281157_BsPgw-X3.gif

[iceman (Mike)]

Excellent work, Ash! Well done. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time but never got motivated for it.

[desler]

Fantastic Ash!

Very nice work!

[Quark (Trevor)]

Extremely well done Ash,

What an excellent animation, this is a top effort.
Don't recall seeing any other attempts at a Pluto animation on this site.

Cheers
Trevor

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Great work Ash!

Cheers,
Stephen

[deadsimple (Ash)]

Thanks guys.

Originally Posted by Quark

Don't recall seeing any other attempts at a Pluto animation on this site.

Yeah I only saw one animation by Dennis, which was inspiring. I was surprised there weren't more of Pluto!

I didn't realise how much effort is involved in producing images/animations of this nature. It really makes me admire some of the work I see produced on this site, really requires dedication and patience.

[leinad (Dan)]

Excellent work Ash!
That is fantastic!

[Ric]

Love that animation Ash.

You've done a great job with capturing Pluto.

Cheers

[Jen]

nice work Ash we dont see much of Pluto floating around these forums

[DaveGee (Dave Gault)]

Nice one Ash!

I'm a Plutophile too. I made animation centred on Pluto's occultation of a Mag 15 star in June 2006. here's a link to the animation...
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/daveg/...to_appulse.gif
I got the occultation too but had to do photometry to see the drop in flux and to detect the atmosphere though.

[Jen]

LMAO @ Plutophile

[theodog (Jeff)]

While looking at this great animation of Pluto, I couldn't help but notice the star I have boxed. Look at the area on deadsimple's origional animation.
Variable
Any ideas on its designation?

[deadsimple (Ash)]

Originally Posted by theodog

Any ideas on its designation?

Probably just a histogram manipulation + deconvolution artefact. The original stacked images produced by DSS don't seem to show much out of the ordinary (though I'd be happy to post them if requested).