How to photograph Pluto with a camera

[Astronomer1]

Hi, i'm new to this page and was wondering if anyone could recommend a camera that I can use with my 12" Dobsonian Skywatcher telescope, to photograph Pluto.

Thanks!

[Cosmic Geoff]

The hard part is finding the right patch of sky, and then finding Pluto among all the stars in the image.

FYI I managed to image Pluto using a ASI224MC camera on a 102mm f5 Startravel and SLT alt-az GoTo mount,  and also used plate-solving and an online star map.  If you do not have GoTo, then good luck.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Cosmic Geoff

[johninderby]

Be aware that through a 12” scope Pluto will just be a faint star like point so it’s more a case of you have found it rather than seeing any detail.

Here’s a photo of Pluto taken using the Keck twin 10m telescopes.

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by johninderby

[Astronomer1]

Thank you very much for your replies.

I will take a look at the ASI224MC camera!

[Seelive]

Pluto is rapidly approaching conjuction and at a declination of -22 deg and a magnitude of just above 15 then later next year, assuming you can guide your dob sufficiently long enought to reach that mag and maintain round stars, I would suggest taking 2 sets of exposures a few days apart so you can spot Pluto's movement against the background stars (as it is currently in a fairly star rich area of the Milky Way within Sagittarius).

[Martin Meredith]

As Cosmic Geoff says, the tricky bit is finding the right field, especially since Pluto is passing through a star-rich portion of the sky. Here's an animation of 3 shots on sucessive days from 2015: 

These were 4 x 15s subs but Pluto is actually quite bright and easy to catch with short exposures (it is detectable in 1s exposures with an 8" f4 scope), so if you were to happen upon the right part of the sky you could take a brief exposure and expect to see it, but only after a lot of searching! 

Good luck

Martin

Edited December 13, 2020 by Martin Meredith

[Wyvern]

Hi,

A couple of Pluto shots from two years ago for reference, taken some 23hrs apart with Canon 1100d and 8" SkyWatcher reflector.

Les.