Observation report: Pluto
Dave Smith
Location: Club dark sky site on the Dengie Peninsular, Essex, UK.
Telescope: VC200L (8" cat reflector) with SS2k
The evening started off badly with strips of low cloud appearing in the
west covering the Venus & Jupiter so sorry no photo for Pete's
animation. As the planets set so the clouds disappeared.
Pluto was my main target for the night. I had printed a finder chart
using Skymap Pro. Once it was properly dark I used SS2k to get to the
right region of the sky. It was quite easy to recognise a pattern of 4
stars near the predicted position of Pluto and hence see where Pluto
should be. As expected nothing was visible. I had started using my
favourite eyepiece, a 22mm super wide Lanthanum but as the background
was not very dark I x2 barlowed it which gave better contrast. Still no
Pluto. For about half an hour I tried averted vision, shutting my eyes
completely for a time before viewing and avoided using even the dimmest
of red lights as much as possible as it had a distinct effect on what I
could see. Eventually a faint tiny point of light came into view for
just a moment and then go. This happened a few times. According to
Skymap Pro there was a star of magnitude 14.2 quite close to Pluto (mag
13.8) so I decided that I could not be sure to have seen Pluto unless I
could see the pair of them at the same time. They were also in line with
a bright star TYC5651-1680-1 mag 6.96. After about another 15 mins or so
the two did briefly pop into view. This happened about 5 or 6 times in
the next half hour. So I feel justified in claiming to have seen Pluto.
Earlier in the night I had looked at the Swan Nebula (Omega Neb M17)
which was recognisable but only just. After finding Pluto I had another
look at the Swan and it was wonderful, as clear as any picture I have
seen (e.g. in O'Meara - the Messier Objects). Other memorable objects
that night were a very small but red Mars (under the earlier cloud), A
distinctly blue Uranus and Neptune, a last look at Ikeya-Zhang comet and
also two very bright passovers of the ISS. The Milky Way was the
clearest I have seen with the dark gap in the middle as it leads South
through Sagitta & Sagittarius easy naked eye. Finally the night finished
off with a beautiful last quarter Moon rising over the Sea and shortly
after that dawn approaching.
A wonderful night.
--
Dave Smith
Website : http://www.graviton.demon.co.uk
Castle Point Astronomy Club, Essex. http://www.cpac.freeserve.co.uk/
Ron B[ee]
congratulation
is in order, Dave!
I had also prepared to watch Pluto this weekend, but persistent fog ruined
everything :-(. Couldn't even see a mag 1 star let alone mag 13.8 Pluto
:-(.
BTW, did you recall what was the LM at the time?
Thanks,
Ron B[ee]
-----------
"Dave Smith" <da...@NOSPAMgraviton.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:$mk0zVAr...@graviton.demon.co.uk...
Dave Smith
<ro...@cox.net> writes
>A huge (or tiny Pluto like depending on your point of view ;-)
>congratulation
>is in order, Dave!
>
>I had also prepared to watch Pluto this weekend, but persistent fog ruined
>everything :-(. Couldn't even see a mag 1 star let alone mag 13.8 Pluto
>:-(.
>BTW, did you recall what was the LM at the time?
>
>Thanks,
>Ron B[ee]
>-----------
dark gap in the Milky Way.
Rod Mollise
>favourite eyepiece, a 22mm super wide Lanthanum but as the background
>was not very dark I x2 barlowed it
Hi Dave:
Good work! But if you want to ensure you saw Pluto and make things easier, try
again with more magnification. I'm not sure about the focal length of your
scope, but when you're on the right spot, boost power up to 250x - 300x+...this
will tend to make that silly little KBO--errr..."planet" :-)--pop right out.
Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto <http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html>
Dave Smith
<rmol...@aol.com> writes
in the last two years when it has been as clear as that. The last time
was when I saw the E & F stars in the trapezium. My scope has a focal
length of 1800mm so the magnification would have only been 163.
Mel Robinson
to see pluto in a 12.5 inch at a semi dark site in the outskirts of
the Chicago skyglow on Saturday night. It took a lot of work and
plenty of good charts. I sketched the star field and accurately
placed all the surrounding stars down to mag. 14. The point in my
sketch that wasn't a star must have been pluto.
Mel Robinson
Sketcher
>Earlier in the night I had looked at the Swan Nebula (Omega Neb M17)
>which was recognisable but only just. After finding Pluto I had another
>look at the Swan and it was wonderful,
I noticed much the same effect on the Tanktrack or Flame Nebula. I
took a look at it prior to hunting down the Horsehead with a 5"
refractor. After succeeding with the Horsehead (this took a bit of
time and effort) I went back to the Tanktrack. My observing eye must
have become significantly more sensitive to light than usual after
using every trick I knew of in order to see B33 at 115x with the
relatively small scope.
After seeing (and sketching) B33 I went back to the Tanktrack. The
detail visible in the Tanktrack was awesome! It was so bright and
loaded with intricate detail that I felt like I was observing with a
20 inch or larger telescope from the top of Mauna Kea! I was so
overwhelmed by the detail (at 115x) and so exhausted after doing all I
had to do to see the Horsehead that I couldn't force myself to even
begin a sketch of the Tanktrack. I knew there was no way I could
sketch all the detail I was seeing!
Such experiences are enough to make one wonder about the capabilities
of the human eye/brain system. I suspect most of us rarely push
ourselves as far as we're capable of going when it comes to seeing
faint objects.
I suppose the above is part of the fascination I now have with small
aperture telescopes. For the past few months I've been using nothing
larger than my 13cm refractor -- often just an ST-80. Then one night
not so long ago I opened up my observatory and played with my 10 inch
Newtonian. All the deep sky objects were so easy, bright, and
detailed in the 10 incher that observing with that scope just didn't
seem very challenging anymore!
I believe most amateurs could benefit quite a bit by spending a fair
amount of time observing deep sky (as well as other) objects with
small (as in 80mm and smaller) apertures, particularly if they have
access to reasonably dark skies. Once one becomes accustomed to
seeing "faint" objects with a small aperture the views with a 6 or 8
inch scope would be sufficient to blow you away!
Aperture fever: It's not a disease. It's a state of mind. I can't
speak for the rest of saa, but give me a high quality 4 inch apo and a
dark sky I and could be a happy, content deep sky observer for the
rest of my days (or nights). Meanwhile I guess I'll just have to make
do with my 8cm, 13cm, and 25cm scopes ;-)
Sketcher
Ron B[ee]
"Sketcher" <inv...@nowhere.NOSPAM.net> wrote in message >
> I believe most amateurs could benefit quite a bit by spending a fair
> amount of time observing deep sky (as well as other) objects with
> small (as in 80mm and smaller) apertures, particularly if they have
> access to reasonably dark skies. Once one becomes accustomed to
> seeing "faint" objects with a small aperture the views with a 6 or 8
> inch scope would be sufficient to blow you away!
>
> Aperture fever: It's not a disease. It's a state of mind. I can't
> speak for the rest of saa, but give me a high quality 4 inch apo and a
> dark sky I and could be a happy, content deep sky observer for the
> rest of my days (or nights). Meanwhile I guess I'll just have to make
> do with my 8cm, 13cm, and 25cm scopes ;-)
>
> Sketcher
Amen and bravo, Sketcher!
Ron B[ee]
Thad Floryan
| [...]
| Such experiences are enough to make one wonder about the capabilities
| of the human eye/brain system. I suspect most of us rarely push
| ourselves as far as we're capable of going when it comes to seeing
| faint objects.
Training oneself and practice are what it takes. I'm continually amazed
when I'm pointing-out naked-eye-visible-to-me objects that none of my
guests or visitors can see.
| [...]
| I believe most amateurs could benefit quite a bit by spending a fair
| amount of time observing deep sky (as well as other) objects with
| small (as in 80mm and smaller) apertures, particularly if they have
| access to reasonably dark skies. Once one becomes accustomed to
| seeing "faint" objects with a small aperture the views with a 6 or 8
| inch scope would be sufficient to blow you away!
I agree 100%. I don't even want to reveal what I've used over the years
before I finally acquired some decent instruments, the latest of which
was the LX200.
| [...]
| Aperture fever: It's not a disease. It's a state of mind. I can't
| speak for the rest of saa, but give me a high quality 4 inch apo and a
| dark sky I and could be a happy, content deep sky observer for the
| rest of my days (or nights). Meanwhile I guess I'll just have to make
| do with my 8cm, 13cm, and 25cm scopes ;-)
Heh! In another thread I mentioned a Pentax 102mm I saw yesterday when
I visited Lumicon's store. I could be happy with that, too, except it
wasn't exactly portable and my backyard is, thanks to light pollution in
the SF Bay Area, only adequate for training on new gear and viewing some
of the common "crowd pleasers". I had fun tonight attempting to split a
bunch of doubles, but anything below about 50 degrees was awash in a sea
of boiling, roiling atmospheric disturbances.
Darren Drake
second time in my light polluted back yard on 6/7 with my 18 inch and
my PDA with the sky software as my ony guide. It was only 2
arcminutes north of a 7th magnitude star and was easily found. I used
my desktop with Starry Night Pro to confirm that it was indeed Pluo
(which by the way IS a planet Rod). I also tracked down the quasar
3C273 the same night. It`s nice to know that these kind of challenges
are still possible in badly light polluted skies.
th...@thadlabs.com (Thad Floryan) wrote in message news:<UyYM8.4757$Dn3....@dfw-read.news.verio.net>...