Can't put this one in the Planetary Section - Pluto animation

[qcdougn]

Well since I'm on an animation kick this week...here's Pluto last year just before it got demoted.

One image taken on July 13th, 2006 and the other July 15th, 2006.

Taken with a Canon XT and LX-90 .... Once pluto was found, the images were cropped for a closer view.

Doug

[mpeniak]

Well done, that's nice animation!

Martin

[Jamie]

Nice one Doug...

[Astroman]

Excellent! Just as I wrote in another thread. As near as I can tell, the two brightest stars in that field are mag 9. Look how much fainter Pluto is! That's a great illustration.

[geppetto]

A great capture Doug 8)

[SteelRat]

Great stuff 8)

[maroon bells]

Nice one, I can't wait till that probe gets out to Pluto.

Did you manage to see pluto through your scope?

[Cloudwatcher]

Like that a lot.

I tried something similar with Jupiter and it's moons last year but it turned out looking very blobby and bouncy.

[Astroman]

Like that a lot.

I tried something similar with Jupiter and it's moons last year but it turned out looking very blobby and bouncy.

That's probably because Jupiter's moons move so fast. Callisto, the outermost Galilean moon, goes around in just 16 days. Io whizzes around in under 2 days. I haven't tried it, but I'd think an effective animation could be done in hours, not days, as with Pluto. JMHO. Good to try, though!

[qcdougn]

Thanks guys, I think I was actually more excited about finding and imaging Pluto than I expected. I had to put the two wide field images side by side and "Look" for what was different. It was not unlike the old "blink microscope" method done many years ago. I was thrilled when I saw the movement of Pluto.

Maybe I could have see pluto through the scope. But it was far too many things in the star field to tell. Using the camera was the way to go for me.

I sent this animation in to a web site dedicated to imaging pluto with small scopes. The web site coordinater said my image was the first he had seen taken with a DSLR and added it to the site.

Maybe I'll re-do the animation some day for a smoother view.

Doug

[lunator]

Doug

Thats an excellent animation

I've never seen pluto,

How long were the exposure on the camera?

Cheers

Ian

[qcdougn]

Hi Ian,

The best I can remember, I took three (3) 30 sec. images at ISO 800 on Each night. I then made a combine/composite of those for a representative image. You could try longer exposures if your mount provides VG tracking. I didn't want to risk getting star trails or enlongated stars if something went to poop. At this point, I was only experimenting... . Then be prepared to put the images side-by-side for the "discovery".... :shock:

Doug

[zhgutas]

Now that must have been not an easy target at all! Nice job

[legion48]

What a great idea and a great result.

[cygnusx1]

Very nice animation there,

BTW, what spec is the LX-90?

[Rob]

Nice work indeed there, well done.

[maroon bells]

It would have actually been moving backwards (retrograde) in your pictures, did you realise that?