My mission was to capture a picture of the planet Pluto with my home telescope.
Pluto is currently 3.1455 billion mi away from Earth.
My Explore Scientific 127mm telescope is not meant to find such small and far-reaching planets, but I had a plan.
I pointed to an area where I thought Pluto would be and captured 30 minutes of exposure time. Then I captured 30 again on the next night and flipped between the two pictures.
If one of these objects moves? Then that must be Pluto.
And then I saw it, at the very top – and it moved by the exact amount I would have expected.
Mission accomplished!
Imaging Telescope:
Explore Scientific FCD100 Series 127mm Refractor Telescope
Imaging Camera:
ZWO ASI1600MM Cool
Focuser:
MoonLite 2.5″ Focuser with Motor Auto-Focus
Field Flattener:
Orion .8 Reducer / flattener
Mount:
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Source