Pluto over two nights

[lukebl]

Hi folks,

Just to ease myself into the new astro season, I thought I'd capture Pluto over a couple of nights.

Unfortunately, it's so low (transiting at barely 15 degree altitude) that I can't see it from my obs, so I captured these with my new mobile rig consisting of a spare NEQ6 and 200mm Newt. Not the sharpest images, but it's very low down in the murk and I'm a bit out of practice. Despite its distance, it moves at a discernable rate over just a few hours. The brightest star here is about 9th magnitude and Pluto is about mag 14.3.

Atik428ex, about 30 x 30 second exposures, plus 15 x 15secs each of RGB binned 2x. Field of view 34.2 x 25.8 arcmin

18th September 2019:

19th September 2019:

Images superimposed:

Zoomed animation:

Edited September 20, 2019 by lukebl

[maw lod qan]

Very nice! I hope to bag Pluto one day, but I wonder if I ever will manage.

[stephencamptonjones]

Excellent capture.

 

Stephen

[geoflewis]

That's really good and a great way to ease yourself into the new season

[Nigeyboy]

Really cool!! Very impressive to capture Pluto at such a low angle.

Your comment 'A Spare EQ-6 and 200mm Newt' made me chuckle . . . . do you have a room full of mounts and scopes lol!! 😉

[lukebl]

1 hour ago, Nigeyboy said:

. . . . do you have a room full of mounts and scopes lol!! 😉

Ha ha! No, just a garage with the NEQ which I picked up relatively cheaply recently, plus an old SW 8" Newt.

No-one actually keeps cars in their garages do they? Except the rich!

[Nigeyboy]

Spot on there - garages are for storing anything but cars nowadays!!

 

[geoflewis]

My double garage has 2 cars in it....., but then consider me old school 👴

[happy-kat]

Our garage has a car in it and this is a small house.