Pluto (was M13, M27 etc)

[Cosmic Geoff]

On 31 Aug I took some images of the Pluto region with 102mm achro f5 refractor, ASI224MC.  With the SLT mount synced to Saturn, the mount placed Jupiter and several Messier objects well in the camera field of view, so I was confident it should be capturing the region of Pluto.

Next day I plate-solved one of the Pluto images successfully and identified the brightest star near the position. Pluto does not show up though - too faint. The 15 sec exposure shows the sky background.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Further to this, I have analysed a 7x stacked Sharpcap image from the same session.  Total exposure about 105 secs with 102mm f5 achro and ASI224MC camera.  More stars can be seen with stars down to mag 13.7 being unambiguously identifiable.  Lower down in the field a couple of stars of mag 14.3 and 14,4 can just be made out.  (Pluto is stated as mag 14.3).

A platesolve confirms this is the right field and using map and data from calsky.com I can see a marginal smudge in the indicated position for Pluto. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Cosmic Geoff

[Bill S]

By Jupiter or rather by Pluto you have got it. Good stuff! Well done!

I hope you don't mind my posting a slightly modded version. Pluto shows up just a bit better on my screen - that could be my screen or eyes.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Thanks Bill. That proves I wasn't seeing more in the image than was there.

[Cosmic Geoff]

An update: I tried Pluto again on the evening of the 5th Sept, with a bigger stack. This image overlaps the previous one, the previous position being out of shot to the left.  Pluto's position on the 5th is marked halfway down on the left, next to a 13th mag star. The brightest star in the image is TYC 6310-466-1.

I struggled with the platesolve yesterday but today compared the image with the earlier image and got it the right way round.

19 frame 114sec stack taken with ASI224MC camera and 102mm f5 achro refractor.