Hubble discovers a new moon

[Evl]

Saw this on the BBC news website and wondered if anyone had read this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-18803212

New moon called P5 around Pluto.

Would anybody be able to see this on a home scope or would you need a big boys toy for viewing like Hubble only?

[squeaky]

Hmm... Pluto is listed as Mag 14 by Stellarium; then the three moons shown there are:

Charon 16.88

Hydra 21.09

Nix 21.56

Pluto itself is at the limit on a perfect night for my 12" newtonian, though a long exposure photograph should catch it. Possibly Charon too. As for the rest of them... well, it'd have to be a scope bigger than mine - depends on what you call a big boy Judging from that image P4 and now P5 will be extremely faint.

The angular separation is minute. I'd have to go to a magnification of over 3,000 to resolve the main moons - as opposed to a normal sensible magnification here in the UK of 200 to 600. And, given that it's crossing the milky way star field at the moment the alignment, guidance and tracking would have to be perfect too. Star hopping to target in that field would be a nightmare.

New Horizons, an unmanned Nasa spacecraft, is currently en route to Pluto, with a flyby of the object scheduled for 2015.

It will return the first ever detailed images of the Pluto system, which is so small and distant that even Hubble can barely see the largest features on its surface.

Roll on 2015

EDIT: Been playing with my Stellarium... if I use my 2mm EP and then stack my 2x Barlow with my 3x Barlow and my 5x Powermate I'll get a field of view of around 8.5 arc seconds - which would give me a nice view. Well it would if the light capture at those levels was sufficient. (A magnification level of a mere 21,428 )

EDIT 2: just realised that I have two 2x Barlows. So FOV = 4.25 arc secs, mag=43,000. Yeah right