Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com
Emails – Letters – Tweets – Facebook – Instagram – Kit questions
Good spot!
I decided to take you up on your ‘Sky Guide challenge’ in the July 2023 issue to image Pluto, and I’m delighted with what I captured. After taking my first photo on 8 August, I was desperately hoping for another clear night before Pluto moved out of the frame with M75. Fortunately, I got my opportunity a few days later on the 14th! It was thrilling to follow in the footsteps of Clyde Tombaugh, over 90 years later, by comparing both images to track the movement of Pluto. The image is a stack of 94 60-second exposures taken with an Altair Astro 60EDF with 1x flattener and a ZWO ASI533MC-Pro camera fitted with a UV/IR cut, sitting on a Celestron AVX mount. Capture, stacking and processing was done with NINA, Astro Pixel Processor, StarTools and Photoshop. The top arrow shows Pluto’s position on 8 August, the bottom arrow on 14 August. Globular cluster M75 is also seen to the upper right.
Neil Goddard, Witney, Oxfordshire
What a great find, Neil! Tiny, faint Pluto can be really tough to track down, so well done on capturing and locating it within this busy star field. – Ed.
This month’s top prize: two Philip’s titles
The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2024 and Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Constellations
Winner’s details will be passed on to Octopus Publishing to fulfil the prize
Tweet
SkyWatcher (Dave)
@SkyWatch07 • 9 Sept Saturn is 1.3 billion km away from my patio, but my Dobsonian (10-inch) allows me to see the gas giant instantly. Shot in misty conditions two nights ago.
#Astrophotography #Saturn@skyatnightmag
Sun-day best
I’ve been fine tuning my old Coronado PST and have been getting some of the best results I’ve had in recent years, both visually and photographically. My solar scope has had a new lease of life as a result! Here is a double-stacked image of the Sun taken on 29 August.
Anton Matthews, via email
Supernova update
I was looking online for images of supernova 2023ixf and came across your article ‘Bright supernova SN 2023ixf in M101 the Pinwheel Galaxy’ (www. skyatnightmagazine.com). Most of the photos were taken close to the time the supernova was first obse
