Last Night's Observations of Pluto - a clear night in Spain
It is 2.43 a.m. (Friday morning 24th)and I have just finished a night of observing. What a night - no humidity - reasonable seeing - no wind - clear skies. I started by imaging Pluto - I am keeping an eye on that in case it turns back into a planet again - then reimaged some potentially suspect SN candidates - carried out a run of about 300 galaxies in Vulpecula, Cygnus, Camelopardalis and others and imaged some interesting star clusters. When I am back in the UK in the winter I can look back at these images and investigate them - too late for SN searching then - that has to be tomorrow - but plenty more interest in those images. When I closed down the telescope I realised that Orion was already high in the sky- the Pleiades overhead - Aldebaran and the Hyades, Orion then Sirius blazing away in the East. I went in to get my trusty 8 X 30 binoculars and looked at the Pleiades, the Great Nebula in Orion, the kids in Auruga then M36, M37 and M38 - it is a wonder that I ever get any sleep. Tomorrow (well today) first thing - produce the daily astronomy newspaper, a trip down the mountain for tea bags, a 30 second dip in the pool - getting chilly now - and start checking the imaged galaxies for supernovae. Oh and look at the biggest sunspot group for 10 years - a fantastic sight through my (Mylar filmed) Swarovski birding scope!
Pluto first - here is the chart of the position of my Pluto image - the small square is in the exact position of my image - generated automatically by solving the plate to match the stars on the image with the stars in the chart.
Now the image itself - Pluto is marked
Plate Solution Details
******** ASTROMETRIC SOLUTION RESULTS ********
Center RA: 18h 47m 09.55s
Center Dec: -20° 40' 18.6"
Scale: 1.44 arcseconds/pixel
Size (pixels): 512 x 512
Angular Size: 0° 12' 15" x 0° 12' 15"
Position Angle: 179° 36' from North
RMS: 0.67 (X: 0.42 Y: 0.52)
Number of Stars Used in Solution: 21 (100%)
FWHM: 2.79 pixels, 4.01 arcseconds
***********************************************
Image Details
Object Name: Pluto
Object Type: Pluto
Altitude: +23° 14' 21"
Constellation: Sagittarius
RA (Topocentric): 18h 48m 02s
Dec (Topocentric): -20° 38' 58"
RA (2000.0): 18h 47m 10s
Dec (2000.0): -20° 40' 08"
Azimuth: 216° 13' 59"
Magnitude: 14.17
Phase (%): 99.98%
Rise Time: 13:51
Transit Time: 18:47
Set Time: 23:43
Hour Angle: 02h 21m 56s
Air Mass: 2.53
Earth Distance (au): 33.06
Sun Distance (au): 32.75
RA Rate (arcsecs/sec): 0.000682
Dec Rate (arcsecs/sec): -0.000058
Rise/Set Notes: Rise: 12:50:39 DST_NOT_SET on 23/10/2014
Transit: 17:46:40 DST_NOT_SET on 23/10/2014
Set: 22:42:41 DST_NOT_SET on 23/10/2014
Date: 23/10/2014
Time: 21:08:13 DST
Constellation (Abbrev.): Sgr
Heliocentric Longitude: 282.7°
Heliocentric Latitude: +2.4°
Heliocentric Radius: 32.7485
Geocentric Longitude: 281.1°
Geocentric Latitude: +2.4°
Geocentric Radius: 33.0597
Geocentric Mean Longitude: 281.1°
Geocentric Mean Latitude: +2.4°
Geocentric Mean Radius: 33.0596
True RA: 18.8h
True Dec: -20.7°
Altitude w/Refraction: 23.7343
Apparent Magnitude: 14.2
Apparent Angular Diameter: 0° 00' 00"
Sidereal Time: 21:09
Julian Date: 2456954.29738021