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user-inactivated  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: September 7, 2016

16" Newtonian Dob with all the motors and GOTOs. We used Stellarium to verify the star field, looked at said star field and said "the fuck are we doing, again?" Then we looked at Neptune with the same scope and eyepiece to get a view of Triton. Triton is almost the exact same size, colour and brightness as Pluto. Now with the better idea of what we were looking for, we went back to Pluto and are 70/30 we saw it. Two other guys are 100%, but I like to think I know better.

The only way to be sure is to go back the next day and look again for a faint tiny ass star that moved, but sadly I have work and can't pull that off. Maybe next month we will try again and see if there is anything different. Pluto is near opposition, and there is a star party next month at new moon. At the party, looking at Stellarium, Pluto will pass a star roughly the same brightness from the beginning of the evening to the middle of the night, so we can watch it move and get more eyes on it.