It is a good time for attempting a Pluto observation

With the moon not a factor in the night sky now and with Pluto (magnitude
13.9) less than half a degree from Xi Serpentis, we find ourselves in a
rather opportune time to attempt to view this faintest of planets.
Additionally, to aid in its location, note that it is roughly between two
not so faint stars -- one slightly dimmer than magnitude 9 and the other
slightly dimmer than magnitude 10.

I have put up a Cartes du Ciel image to aid in your search. Note that the
inner finder circle has a diameter of one half a degree and the next circle
out has a diameter of one degree.

I'm going after this prize tonight. Why don't you?

Here is the link to the Cartes du Ciel image:
http://theastropost.com/This%20And%20That.html


--
Martin R. Howell

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

This might be a good time to mention...

I vowed to find this little guy at this year's Table Mountain Star
Party (it was a blast, BTW, but some big scopes were absent). I too
printed star charts in prep for the nights. I used SkyMap 3.2 (old,
classic, easy) with Hubble Guide Star Catalog data (old, classic, not
very dependable).

What I found on the night of the 19th was that Pluto was halfway
between two 12th mag stars, and right smack dab next to an uncharted
star of very similar magnitude.

Over the course of the night (about 3 hours of observing this), I
found out which was Pluto (it was slightly dimmer than the star)
because of its movement. So I didn't have to wait for a second night
to observe/confim.

In general, the field was rich with uncharted stars of similar
magnitude (13+). From th 6300-ft site, 14th magnitude was a definite
hit, but just about as dim as I could reliably and consistently see.
If it wasn't for the easy placement of the planet halfway between
those two stars and near an SAO star, I would not have been able to
find it so quickly the first time (like, 5 minutes).

Equipment: C14 with a Celestron 15mm Ploessl.


"Martin R. Howell" wrote:

With the moon not a factor in the night sky now and with Pluto (magnitude
13.9) less than half a degree from Xi Serpentis, we find ourselves in a
rather opportune time to attempt to view this faintest of planets.
Additionally, to aid in its location, note that it is roughly between two
not so faint stars -- one slightly dimmer than magnitude 9 and the other
slightly dimmer than magnitude 10.

I have put up a Cartes du Ciel image to aid in your search. Note that the
inner finder circle has a diameter of one half a degree and the next circle
out has a diameter of one degree.

I'm going after this prize tonight. Why don't you?

Here is the link to the Cartes du Ciel image:
http://theastropost.com/This%20And%20That.html


--
Martin R. Howell

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com


=============
- Dale Gombert (SkySea at aol.com)
122.38W, 47.58N, W. Seattle, WA
http://flavorj.com/~skysea

"Martin R. Howell" wrote in message
...
With the moon not a factor in the night sky now and with Pluto (magnitude
13.9) less than half a degree from Xi Serpentis, . . .

Thanks for the heads up, Martin. - Canopus56