I dusted off the C9.25 and as part of my re-familiarisation plan with good weather and little-used equipment, I thought I’d chase down Pluto. Presently, Pluto is located in the constellation of Sagittarius, shining at Magnitude: 14.06, some 31.64 AU from my back garden and some 32.49 AU from our Sun.
Here is an LRGB (5x5 mins L, 3x5 mins RGB) with the C9.25 and ST2000XM/CFW9 at the prime focus (F10, 2350mm). Pluto moved between the LRGB frames so it is a little smeared – how rude! The FOV is approx.. 17x13 arcmins at a pixel scale of 0.65 arcsec/pixel.
After a bit of a poor weather layoff, I was all fingers and thumbs but slowly, the imprinted memories of how to set up and use the equipment bubbled up into my conscious mind and soon the system was purring along. I wondered what celestial objects the lads and lassies at the Qld Astrofest would be observing or imaging as I sat under the light polluted skies of suburban Brisbane.
Nice capture, Dennis. Good to see you're back on the horse
I just got back from 3 nights at Astrofest. I have 17.5 hours of NGC 7424 to process once I fix my broken image processing computer. The SSD died while I was doing the initial stack
Nice one Dennis - excellent work . I notice that the planet is coloured blue. I also imaged this once and found it blue as well, yet the Hubble images have is as a light brown. Does anyone know why this is?
Thanks Rick, Marc, Tom & Trevor, I appreciate your comments. I remember taking an image of Pluto the very night before the IAU demoted Clyde Tombaugh’s “Planet” to “Dwarf Planet” status.
@Rick – sorry to hear about the SSD failure.
@Tom – I haven’t performed a G2V calibration of my RGB filters yet, so the overall colour balance could be off in my image.
@Trevor – yes, there are some skills that seem to become part of your DNA!
Thanks for the image, Dennis. I love the images of the out - of - the - way objects like Pluto. They have the romance of the astronomer looking for the elusive target!
Thanks Matt, Richard, Lee, John and Bob, I appreciate your comments.
In terms of locating Pluto, I find that using The Sky or any of my other planetarium apps makes it a straightforward task, which is quite a contrast to Clyde Tombaugh’s incredibly taxing and demanding marathon search, blinking all those glass plates over several years!
Nice catch Dennis, it's always good to see a Pluto image
Interesting with the blue colour, but as you say it may be calibration. I think I recall it as being white or slightly yellowish in an image I took some years ago, but I'm not really sure what colour we should expect to see with our amateur equipment.
Well captured Dennis, and interesting re the colour.
I was looking at the detailed finder chart just the other day in Astronomy 2013, and like someone else remarked, it's pretty crowded out there at present! I was wondering how I would go trying to identify it. If I get a clear night, I might use your pic as a recent reference.
Thanks Rolf, Chris and Mike, I appreciate your comments.
@Chris: just be aware that Pluto can move quite significantly against the background of fixed stars. Here is a screen shot from The Sky X Pro showing the position of Pluto from Aug 3rd to Aug 10th for the FOV of my image (17x13 arcmin).
I noticed appreciable movement over the span of my imaging session where I was exposing though LRGB filters in turn – the little fella was rocketing along!
On a general note, I'm sure why some of the yellow stars appear to be red-shifted in my image….
@Chris: just be aware that Pluto can move quite significantly against the background of fixed stars. Here is a screen shot from The Sky X Pro showing the position of Pluto from Aug 3rd to Aug 10th for the FOV of my image (17x13 arcmin).
Cheers
Dennis
Thanks for that extra info Dennis. I am surprised how fast it moves through that field. Looking at its path over the next month or so, it will slow down to do an about-face in September.
As a matter of interest, down to what magnitude stars were plotted on that The Sky screen?
I love how your first image doesn't have a tag of Pluto on it.
"I'm telling you guys its right there. I promise it is. Right there. No, THERE!!! Can't you see it? Fine I'll point it out."
clever work,well doneNot many astronomers here of the calibre to nail this-great to see a real astro image instead of the usual ubiquitous astro images of the milky way.
Thanks for that extra info Dennis. I am surprised how fast it moves through that field. Looking at its path over the next month or so, it will slow down to do an about-face in September.
As a matter of interest, down to what magnitude stars were plotted on that The Sky screen?
