The Pluto Report

[Jnicholes]

Hi everyone,

So, keep in mind, this post is HALF of a report. The other half will be posted tonight or tomorrow.

Allow me to explain, I am attempting to track Pluto over a period of 2 nights. Moon is below the horizon, Milky way is visible, Conditions are PERFECT. Thought I would try, even though I may not be successful.

Heres the rundown of what I did last night, I am repeating this tonight at the same time and place.

11:30 PM. Brought the telescope to the spot. Set time and location. Two star aligned to Vega and Dubhe. Alignment was successful. Tested alignment by using the computer to go to the Ring Nebula. Was successful. Tested again by going to Saturn with the computer. Was successful. Told computer to point to Pluto. Computer pointed the telescope to the area of Pluto. Received the following from a 60 second exposure on my phone camera with the Nightcap app at 11:49 PM. High exposure setting.

Night 1 of Pluto tracking

Thats what I did last night. There are a LOT of faint stars in the exposure. You may need to zoom in to see them.

Tonight, I am going out to the same spot at the same time and repeating the process. If a star moved in the second exposure, I have successfully tracked Pluto.

If not, oh well. its still fun to try!

If I am unsuccessful, I will work on the Messier AP challenge. I still got 25 left to photograph.

Jared

[KingNothing13]

Neat Jared - I hope you are successful!

[Ylem]

Hope everything goes as planned, but even if it doesn't sounds like a fun evening

[turboscrew]

Cool!

[John Donne]

This is an interesting project Jared.
I look forward to your following report.
Thank you.

[Graeme1858]

Great experiment Jared. Good luck tonight.

And if you have imaged 85 Messiers, you might want to have a look here: viewforum.php?f=87

Regards

Graeme

[Jnicholes]

Telescope broke in transportation. Don’t know what happened.

Putting ALL my projects on hold.

[Richard]

I hope you can fix it, what broke?

[turboscrew]

Telescope broke in transportation. Don’t know what happened.

Putting ALL my projects on hold.

Darn! And then couple of words not fit here.

[Unitron48]

Great exercise. Wishing you all the best when you get started again.

Be sure to check out the SkyLive site for Pluto locational information: https://theskylive.com/pluto-tracker.

Dave

[KingNothing13]

Telescope broke in transportation. Don’t know what happened.

Putting ALL my projects on hold.

Eeek! That's not what we want to hear, and I know it is worse for you! I hope you can figure out what is wrong and fix it.

[helicon]

Congrats Jared on winning the VROD for today! You seem to have captured the elusive object with your smartphone and by comparing the position of the stars on future nights you will be able to positively identify the 'former' planet.

[Jnicholes]

The mount to tripod attachment point broke. How that happened, I don’t know. Maybe I loaded the telescope in the car wrong.

New part is in the mail. Until then, I am without a telescope.

I’ll have to restart the Pluto project when it gets here on July 6-8.

[helicon]

The mount to tripod attachment point broke. How that happened, I don’t know. Maybe I loaded the telescope in the car wrong.

New part is in the mail. Until then, I am without a telescope.

I’ll have to restart the Pluto project when it gets here on July 6-8.

Sorry to hear about the problem Jared. Sounds like you'll have to wait for confirmation.

[John Baars]

Sorry about the breaking down and cancelling the Pluto project for now.
Glad to hear there is a new part and on its way.
Congratulations with your VROD!

[Makuser]

Hi Jared. You were of to a great start on your Pluto Photographic Project before the tripod attachment broke down and I enjoyed your image very much. Hopefully, you can get this repaired soon, and with Pluto's long orbiting time, you may get an even better second shot to display it's path through our skies. Thanks for sharing this capture with us Jared, and congratulations on winning the TSS VROD Award today

[John Donne]

Well dingy-dangy-darn !
Frustration worketh perseverence...

That reminds me of part of my broken SLT mount.
Where do you get parts Jared?

[Jnicholes]

Thanks for the award, I appreciate it, although I don’t see why I got it, in all honesty. I DID get an awesome photo, but I didn’t confirm it was Pluto. I need a second night to confirm it.

Maybe it’s for the best that I wait on this project, the new moon is happening when the new telescope part comes, so skies will be clearer.

Jared

[MistrBadgr]

I am really interested in what you are doing. I will be getting that AP for my phone.

[Jnicholes]

I am really interested in what you are doing. I will be getting that AP for my phone.

The app you need is called nightcap. It works really well for Astro photography. You need a way to secure your phone to the eyepiece, though.

As soon as I get the new piece in the mail, and as soon as everything is repaired, I’ll post a picture of my set up for you guys.