PLUTO

Time Lapse Video showing Pluto's orbital path against the background stars. Photographed over 5 consecutive nights.

The telescope was situated on top of Queen Victoria Hospital in Revelstoke, British Columbia.

The telescope used was a Celestron CPC 8" schmidt cassegrain telescope. A Nikon D50 was used in prime focus.

Images were processed using Registax, and touchup with GIMP.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Pluto
• Planet
• Kuiper
• Belt
• Object
• Davies
• Revelstoke
• Telescope
• Astronomy
• Astrophotography
• Nikon
• D50
• Space

[Superdavo0001]

Wow! It just shows how faint it is!

[yu244720]

Hi Superdave - well the object is at the 14th magnitude, therefore requires exposure shots around 1-2 seconds at the very least at ISO 800

[Mongoose561001]

did u use 40mm lens

[yu244720]

No Mongoose. The camera was in prime focus with the instrument.

[flashjacksonbrowable]

Cant possibly see pluto .

[yu244720]

@flashjacksonbrowable - of course you can't with an 8" instrument. It can be photographed though.

[yu244720]

My telescope is computerized. There is no mystery with the technology available today. Yet with the technology there is some inacurracy during the calibration process. With a camera having a big enough chip size you can capture it.

[mekhistar123]

Amazing how were you able to fing pluto?!

[yu244720]

Yes pluto can be imaged with an 8" scope but it cannot be seen visually with one. Remember pluto is at the 14th magnitude right? If I am correct this is around the limiting magnitude for an 8" system. In fact the same images were verified by another amateur who photographed it in texas at nearly the same time frame. This video is now several years old.

The trick with this type of capture is to calibrate the instrument through the camera, not through a lens.

[yu244720]

The scope was positioned on the rooftop of a hospital and was in fact left there for several days. It was never moved. You are forgetting that a 6MP camera was used to snap the images....so the hardest part was trying to find the movement against the background stars - took many hours. The movement captured here of the planet covers only a very small portion of the whole image frame. The instrument was calibrated to find pluto. Additionally the stars can be confirmed using planetarium software.

[astrophysics03]

@yu244720 How did you do it to find the same exact spot where you took the first picture? I don't think you left the telescope in the same exact position until the next night, Right? Also, I think it's complicated to search for Pluto, but my question is, how do you know if it's not an asteroid, if asteroids are discovered the same way as seen in this video, and look literally the same as in this video? (I'm not being skeptical, I know your video is real, I'm just curious)