| Article | Last revised: 07/24/06 |  |
Pluto Challenge: Imaging Results |
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Revision Notes: |
8/18/00: Created with sample image links. 8/24: Added JAB image link. 8/29: Added DA image link. 9/2: Updated this link. 9/04: It Has Been Done! 12/02: Another prior-art example. 6/5/01: JG's broken link 6/13: JP pics. 7/13: JG's animation is back. 7/21/02: AstroGeek video capture. 9/10/2004: Gary Clinch's Pluto under Prior Art. |
9/14/2005: Thierry REMY Webcam
animation image 10/07/2005 Ken Graun film image to beat 7/24/2006: Douglas W. Neal Pluto image. Changed "Prior Art" to "Reference Pluto Images" |
It Has Been Done! Here's proof that small amateur equipment can image Pluto
| CCD Image to Beat | |
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Rick Bria and
Angelo Nunez were able to overcome light pollution in their two CCD
images of Pluto on August 16th and 20th of 2000. The results are
visible in the animated GIF file to the left -- give it time to load to
see all the frames.
The two dated images were through an 80-mm refractor working at 600-mm focal length. Imaging was unguided on a non-computerized mount. Shown are cropped 16' x 15' fields from the original 27' x 20' images. North is up and West is right -- just as in a northern hemisphere 'naked eye' view. Also included is a Space Telescope Science Institute Digitized Survey image to verify the field. The field is centered in RA/DEC at about: 16h40m22s / -11°04'. |
| Bria/Nunez Pluto images + STSci Digitized Survey reference image. | |
| CCD Runner-Up | |
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This amazing
Pluto animation was made from stacked images taken through a NexStar-5
with a Philips Vesta Pro web-cam!
Thierry REMY, an expert NexStar-5/webcam imager made the exposures from August 4 to August 8, 2005 in Valdrôme France, at the Société Astronomique de France meeting. Each image was taken under the same conditions at the beginning of night, while waiting for seeing to develop. I added TheSKY6 frame at the end as verification. Pluto was at 13.9-mag and the bright star here is 8.25-mag (SAO 160548). Hardware: Vesta Pro NetB sensor 1/4"
mode RAW through Celestron NexStar-5 (5"/127 mm) in equatorial mounting + Red 3.3 GAIN 95% - GAMMA 50% - 10 seconds each |
| Thierry REMY Pluto animation + TheSKY6 reference frame. | |
| FILM Image to Beat | |
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After some e-mail correspondence with author
and publisher Ken Graun, I visited his What's
Out Tonight website and was pleasantly surprised to see this series of
Pluto images taken on film with a 4" refractor. (With the rush
to digital imaging at the start of the 21st century, I was no longer
actively searching for amateur Pluto images on film!)
While fellow Arizonian Clyde Tombaugh imaged Pluto with a 3-element f/5.3 refractor onto very slow speed b&w film, Ken used a 4-element f/5.4 refractor, with a Barlow to achieve f/10.8, to image the planet onto high speed b&w film. Clyde's 13-incher had 10-times the aperture of Ken's scope, but Ken has access to film in the neighborhood of 5-times faster - if not more. |
| Animation of Ken Graun's stills + TheSKY6 reference frame. | |
Reference Pluto Images These amateur images were taken with larger instruments than the above. Use them as a reference comparison.
- This Pluto animation, by Joe Garlitz, was creating by stacking 15 CCD exposures for each frame! Imaging was done through an 8" (0.20-m) Newtonian. Here are some Pluto static shots Joe created.
- Chris Vedeler nailed down Pluto using a CCD camera through a 10" (0.25-m) SCT.
- John A. Blackwell took a single 1' exposure though a 8" this June to produce this clear shot.
- Dave Allmon, using a fast (f/3.3) 10", captured the planet on a modified Quickcam.
- Richard L. Robinson took these images of Pluto through an 8" SCT with a MX - 5C CCD.
- John Polhamus took these images: each 2 x 60 secs, binned 2x2, with a Meade 8" LX200 and ST7 camera.
- Demonstrating the light-sensitivity of the new astro-video cameras, AstroGeek, from Massachusetts, capture this Pluto image with an Astrovid StellaCam. It was taken through a Celestron C-11 and captured with a Snappy frame grabber. Processing was done with Photoshop. Imaged on July 17, 2002. (I estimate the field at a bit less-than 0.2-deg wide).
- Gary Clinch took these successive CCD images of Pluto with an ST-7XE and LX200 under a bright Moon.
- Douglas W. Neal found Pluto with a Meade 8" LX90 and Canon Rebel XT digital SLR.
STScI Digitized Sky Survey images are copyright (c) 1995-2000 by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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