Dwarf Planet (134340) Pluto: a movie (25 July 2019)
It is always special to look for the dwarf planet Pluto. Here it is this unique world, while it slowly move across the sky.
Dwarf Planet (134340) Pluto: 25 July 2019
The animation above comes from two 180-seconds exposures, remotely collected with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope Project. The two images were separated in time of about 90 minutes. Pluto is visible in the center as a dot o flight moving back and forth: in the 90 minutes between the two exposures, the body moved a bit, so the different position is showed in the animation as a “jump”. It is placed quite South in the sky, in the Sagittarius constellation, so looking at it from the Northern hemisphere can be a bit tricky… but rewarding for sure!
Looking at Pluto means looking quite far away, being the object at about 5 billions of km from us. Discovered in 1930, it was considered a planet until 2006, when astronomer decided it was better to change its status, introducing the new “dwarf planet” category.
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