Last Night's Observations of Pluto - a clear night in Spain

It is 2.43 a.m. (Friday morning 24th)and I have just finished a night of observing. What a night - no humidity - reasonable seeing - no wind - clear skies. I started by imaging Pluto - I am keeping an eye on that in case it turns back into a planet again - then reimaged some potentially suspect SN candidates - carried out a run of about 300 galaxies in Vulpecula, Cygnus, Camelopardalis and others and imaged some interesting star clusters. When I am back in the UK in the winter I can look back at these images and investigate them - too late for SN searching then - that has to be tomorrow - but plenty more interest in those images. When I closed down the telescope I realised that Orion was already high in the sky- the Pleiades overhead  - Aldebaran and the Hyades, Orion then Sirius blazing away in the East. I went in to get my trusty 8 X 30 binoculars and looked at the Pleiades, the Great Nebula in Orion, the kids in Auruga then M36, M37 and M38 - it is a wonder that I ever get any sleep. Tomorrow (well today)  first thing - produce the daily astronomy newspaper, a trip down the mountain for tea bags, a 30 second dip in the pool - getting chilly now -  and start checking the imaged galaxies for supernovae.  Oh and look at the biggest sunspot group for 10 years - a fantastic sight through my (Mylar filmed) Swarovski birding scope!

Pluto first - here is the chart of the position of my Pluto image - the small square is in the exact position of my image - generated automatically by solving the plate to match the stars on the image with the stars in the chart. 

Now the image itself - Pluto is marked

Plate Solution Details

******** ASTROMETRIC SOLUTION RESULTS ********

Center RA: 18h 47m 09.55s

Center Dec: -20° 40' 18.6"

Scale: 1.44 arcseconds/pixel

Size (pixels): 512 x 512

Angular Size: 0° 12' 15" x 0° 12' 15"

Position Angle: 179° 36' from North

RMS: 0.67 (X: 0.42 Y: 0.52)

Number of Stars Used in Solution: 21 (100%)

FWHM: 2.79 pixels, 4.01 arcseconds

***********************************************

Image Details

Object Name: Pluto

Object Type: Pluto

Altitude: +23° 14' 21"

Constellation: Sagittarius

RA (Topocentric): 18h 48m 02s

Dec (Topocentric): -20° 38' 58"

RA (2000.0): 18h 47m 10s

Dec (2000.0): -20° 40' 08"

Azimuth: 216° 13' 59"

Magnitude: 14.17

Phase (%):  99.98%

Rise Time: 13:51

Transit Time: 18:47

Set Time: 23:43

Hour Angle: 02h 21m 56s

Air Mass: 2.53

Earth Distance (au): 33.06

Sun Distance (au): 32.75

RA Rate (arcsecs/sec): 0.000682

Dec Rate (arcsecs/sec): -0.000058

Rise/Set Notes:  Rise: 12:50:39 DST_NOT_SET on 23/10/2014

 Transit: 17:46:40 DST_NOT_SET on 23/10/2014

 Set: 22:42:41 DST_NOT_SET on 23/10/2014

Date: 23/10/2014

Time: 21:08:13 DST

Constellation (Abbrev.): Sgr

Heliocentric Longitude: 282.7°

Heliocentric Latitude: +2.4°

Heliocentric Radius: 32.7485

Geocentric Longitude: 281.1°

Geocentric Latitude: +2.4°

Geocentric Radius: 33.0597

Geocentric Mean Longitude: 281.1°

Geocentric Mean Latitude: +2.4°

Geocentric Mean Radius: 33.0596

True RA: 18.8h

True Dec: -20.7°

Altitude w/Refraction: 23.7343

Apparent Magnitude: 14.2

Apparent Angular Diameter:   0° 00' 00"

Sidereal Time: 21:09

Julian Date: 2456954.29738021