Astrophoto: Capturing Pluto with a Spoon

By Nancy Atkinson - July 08, 2014 02:32 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Last week,

we encouraged those of you

with a decent sized backyard telescope (and a little patience) to try and spot tiny dwarf planet Pluto, which was at opposition over this past weekend.

One of our favorite astrophotographers,

John Chumack

, did just that using the "Sagittarius Spoon" to zero-in on Pluto's location.

"Most astronomers are familiar with the Great Tea Pot of Sagittarius, but just above the Teapot's Handle is the Sagittarius Spoon!" John said via email. His annotated image, above, shows the spoon and the arrow points to Pluto.

See a non-annotated version, below, and try to also spot some very familiar deep sky objects in this field of view:

[caption id="attachment_113072" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

A non-annotated version of the Sagittarius Spoon and Pluto on 06-29-2014 from Dexter, Iowa. Credit and copyright: John Chumack. [/caption]

Can you see: Globular Clusters M22, M28, NGC-6717 Open Star Clusters M25, M18 Emission Nebulae M17 The Swan or Omega Nebula & M16 The Eagle Nebula M24 The Sagittarius Star Cloud, (also awesome in binoculars, John says)

John used a modified Canon 40D DSLR & 50mm lens @F5.6, ISO 1600 for a Single 4 minute exposure while tracking on a CG-4 Mount. And friends from Dexter, Iowa provided the view!

Update:

Larry McNish from the Calgary Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada also sent in two images of Pluto at opposition. All the details are on the images, but they emphasize just how difficult capturing Pluto can be:

[caption id="attachment_113093" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

Pluto two days before opposition on July 2, 2014. Credit and copyright: Larry McNish, Calgary Centre of the

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_113095" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

Pluto, four days after opposition on July 8, 2014. Credit and copyright: Larry McNish, Calgary Centre of the

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.[/caption]

See David Dickinson's great tips on how to spot Pluto for yourself here.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you're giving us permission to post them). Please explain what's in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com