Spot the Pluto

[Martin Meredith]

I couldn't resist a look at Pluto earlier this morning on this historic day. I was fortunate that Pluto was just above a neighbour's roof at around 25 degrees. 

After a fair amount of hunting in the image I've managed to convince myself that I've found the blighter, but I could be wrong! This is a 1s exposure with the Lodestar X2 mono on a newly-flocked Quattro 8":

Since the star fields of Sagittarius are so dense, I didn't find maps or SkySafari useful in this instance so instead compared the field to the SDSS image from ALADIN. I've also included a 30s shot to bring out more stars to make the comparison more robust. You have to mentally rotate the SDSS a little clockwise.

Will take another shot tonight if clear. Meanwhile fingers crossed for New Horizons...

cheers

Martin

[orion25]

Great shots, Martin! All hail New Horizons! These are exciting times. The limiting magnitude of my biggest scope is about 14th magnitude, so I have a shot at scoping the minor planet. I'm willing clear skies this weekend so I can hunt for it. 

Thanks for sharing 

Reggie

[nightfisher]

For a 1 sec image that is superb!  here is a question for you, if i want to make a say, 5 sec capture with a sammy 2000 and EZcap can i use craterlet to control the camera?

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks Reggie. After taking this I had a look through the eyepiece (for a change) and although I spotted the two asterisms (the small sharp right-pointing arrow and the larger semicircle of stars) there was no way to see Pluto. Of course, staring at a laptop screen some moments before didn't help… anyway, good luck in your search. 

Cheers Jules. I was pretty amazed too but the Lodestar is very sensitive so it shouldn't come as a surprise. I'm afraid I can't help on your question as I don't know what craterlet is but someone here should know. Worth giving it a shot. The hardest thing is ensuring you're in the right region...

Martin

[nightfisher]

Thanks Reggie. After taking this I had a look through the eyepiece (for a change) and although I spotted the two asterisms (the small sharp right-pointing arrow and the larger semicircle of stars) there was no way to see Pluto. Of course, staring at a laptop screen some moments before didn't help… anyway, good luck in your search. 

Cheers Jules. I was pretty amazed too but the Lodestar is very sensitive so it shouldn't come as a surprise. I'm afraid I can't help on your question as I don't know what craterlet is but someone here should know. Worth giving it a shot. The hardest thing is ensuring you're in the right region...

Martin

Thanks for the quick reply, how do you go about making the capture

[Martin Meredith]

Not sure how you would do it with the Sammy, but in my case I used LodestarLive for everything (in this case just selecting 1s exposure, then live histogram tweaking and exporting image -- what you see is what I saw on the laptop screen).

Martin

[nytecam]

Well done Martin - you beat me to it !  My efforts from last night @ http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/248654-pluto-in-sagittarius/

Nytecam

[Macavity]

Nice work!

I tried, I tried... But I discovered that half of the OTA was pointing at the obsy wall!

Perhaps not this lifetime? But I do think about a portative rig, get a few extra deg...

[laudropb]

Well done capturing this very difficult target