I woke up at 2:00am and looked out of the bedroom window and saw that it was clear. In less than 1 hour, I had the car packed with camera gear and my EM200 Mount and headed off to find skies a little darker than those of suburban Brisbane.
Just after 4:00am, after an 85 km drive, I found myself on the Esplanade at Toorbul and began to set up 100 metres or so from the car. It took me a while to figure out how everything fitted together again, then polar align and I was off.
I fitted a Canon EOS R5 with RF 15-35mm F2.8L lens and began a series of test shots and alighted on 30 secs, F5.6 at ISO1600. The lens promptly dewed up, so I went back to the car for the Pocket Powerbox Advance (PPBADV) and a 12V DC SLA battery and fitted a dew heater, managing to plug the 12V DC IN to the IN Socket (physically it is a 2.1 mm DC input female socket, just like the 4 x 12V DC Power outlets and the Adjustable Out as well). Wouldn’t do to get this wrong in the dark…
Remarkably, I had everything I needed as I didn’t have a plan as this was an impromptu decision to just go for it, so I just began shooting using the built-in Interval Timer of the EOS R5.
I used the Focus Assist “Green Triangles” to manually focus, but when I checked again after a few shots, I noticed that all the images were OOF – probably a result of the dew strap tugging on the lens, as it was fitted over the focus ring, as I had nowhere else to position it.
Part way through the session, the PPBADV Blue LED began blinking so I went back to the car for the back up 12 VDC SLA and fitted that. I took this opportunity to point the camera up and grabbed a couple of shots towards the Zenith. Luckily, these came in use later as in those 3 images, I had also picked up Saturn. Sadly, Pluto was behind the trees by this stage.
PixInsight did a fantastic job of aligning and stacking the disorganized, chaotic set of files I emptied into it, although I had to manually blend in those lucky shots of Saturn in PS CC.
I have included crops of each target to provide some more detail on these regions.
Great effort Dennis! If we'd made an impromptu decision like that, we would never have managed to get anything, let alone have everything we needed in the car. Your efforts have been rewarded with an excellent image showing a rare alignment.
Thank you John and Clare & Peter, I appreciate your comments.
The incredible technology that is now available to amateur astronomers gives these ad hoc projects a greater chance of success than ever before, so it was well worth the effort.
I had 1st light with the RF 15-35mm F2.8L in our back garden on 22nd June, grabbing 5 x 30 sec shots of the Milky Way overhead, in the awful light pollution of Brisbane.
Lo and behold, I have now added Pluto to complete my classical solar system itinerary.
Thanks Trevor, it is mind blowing that I can record the dot of Pluto at a focal length of only 19mm, with a scant 5 x 30 sec exposures from suburban Brisbane.
Well, as luck would have it, I did manage to record the “once-was-a-planet” Pluto during the same session.
This was a test shot just after setting up, to check focus, exposure, etc. and I just pointed the camera up and grabbed a 30 sec exposure. As you can see, the Dew Heater Strip is encroaching into the FOV at bottom right, so I re-positioned it for the live run later. The stars are quite distorted at the edges as expected.
Just goes to show what you might find in your set up/failed shots - think twice before pressing the delete Button.
How do you explain to Clyde William Tombaugh that using modern equipment, I recorded the position of Pluto with a 15mm wide angle lens and a single 30 sec exposure…
I have attached a screen print from The Sky showing the FOV and target locations.
Unfortunately, I cannot include this shot in the original composition as the FOV and orientation don't match.
Thanks Leon, its a testimony to the sophistication and robustness of modern gear that you can set off on these unplanned missions and come away with some satisfactory results.
Unlike the 35mm film and manual guiding days, although you're too young to remember those days gone by.
With reference to my "Pluto" image above, I hadn't zoomed in enough on the star field and when I did, the real Pluto popped out from behind the star Tycho 6892:511, which is mag 8.
I think the 15mm lens, 30 secs at ISO 1600 managed to record down to mag 10, so no Pluto for me.
The other brighter star in the circle is HIP 98575 at mag 6.
Great effort Dennis! If we'd made an impromptu decision like that, we would never have managed to get anything, let alone have everything we needed in the car. Your efforts have been rewarded with an excellent image showing a rare alignment.
Great catch Dennis. Awesome. 
