Pluto August 4th and 16th

[Ouroboros]

Like most of us this summer I've been enjoying looking at the planets Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus.  However, I've been somewhat frustrated by the weather - I've had two not very clear nights for near on a month here in Cornwall - and too much cloud the rest of the time. 

I also decided I'd have a go at imaging pluto, which is nicely placed between Mars and Saturn at the moment. I didn't think there was much chance of me actually seeing it with my 200p.  So, between clouds and lousy seeing low towards the south I managed to image capture Pluto on the two nights of 4th and 16th August. I'm quite pleased because it was the only planet (OK so it's a dwarf planet now) I've never seen or imaged until now.  Here's a sort of montage image showing Pluto's position imaged on the two dates. OK, so it's an unexciting dot of light,  but it was 4888 million kilometres away on the 4th. 

 

 

[orion25]

Congratulations on capturing the elusive (dwarf) planet, Pluto. That's quite an achievement, one that few amateur astronomers (or even some professional ones) can claim.

 

Cheers,

Reggie  

[DRT]

Well done indeed! 

For what it's worth, I still think of Pluto as our 9th Planet and it's fantastic to see someone successfully capturing it  

[Demonperformer]

That is superb.  I think it is a very exciting dot of light ... and portraying both images combined into one is an inspired idea, which shows how easy it would be not to notice it if you didn't know it was there.

[Pete Presland]

Very nicely captured, it will always be a planet to me as well.

[Sunshine]

I wish they didn’t kill Pluto, thanks for capturing it, it’s not an easy target, i have envisioned trying it but gave up before I tried lol.

[dweller25]

Fantastic image - well done ?

I still think Pluto is a planet ?

- why not ? ?

[Ouroboros]

Thanks all for your kind comments. Actually with modern technology it's relatively easy. Set up GOTO to point at Pluto and take some pictures. Do the same a few days later.  The hardest part was battling with uncooperative skies and then staring at my images for ages whilst comparing them with SkySafari until I finally spotted where Pluto was.  I know ..... that's what plate solving is for, but where's the fun in that?

[Ouroboros]

PS I still think of Pluto as a planet too! 

[Stargazer33]

Great catch!

Would flicking from one image to the next not have shown it up easier? As they do with the images on zooniverse.

Pluto was a planet when I was born so it will always be the 9th planet to me too!

[MarsG76]

That point of light is very exciting.. a great achievement that not many have under their belt...

 

[Ouroboros]

14 hours ago, Stargazer33 said:

Great catch!

Would flicking from one image to the next not have shown it up easier? As they do with the images on zooniverse.

Pluto was a planet when I was born so it will always be the 9th planet to me too!

Thanks. The short  reply is no. 

The longer reply is that with the data I had the blink method wasn't so easy. For a start the two images were taken 12 days apart. A day or two separation and they might have been easier to  spit that way. I set up the blink test in Photoshop by placing the two aligned images in separate layers and flicking between them. But there was so many noise artefacts particularly in the second processed image that I couldn't spot Pluto.