Pluto still has a place in our mind as a planet, but it's just too small. Smaller than the moon, a little bit brighter, but about 12,000 times further away. It is about 3,000,000,000 miles away in this photo and the light from the sun that's reached it is having to come all that way back in to us. It's amazing we can see it at all, because that light is the 'lucky' portion that has reflected almost straight off the rocks or ice on its surface. But nevertheless, it is clearly visible when you capture 30 seconds worth of those photons by bouncing them yet again off a 20 inch highly silvered mirror in a hole in a dome in a field in Norfolk. Pluto's moon, Charon, would also be visible if it didn't lie within the small circle of fuzz around the image of Pluto.
Friday, 10 July 2009
My best shot of Pluto yet
Pluto still has a place in our mind as a planet, but it's just too small. Smaller than the moon, a little bit brighter, but about 12,000 times further away. It is about 3,000,000,000 miles away in this photo and the light from the sun that's reached it is having to come all that way back in to us. It's amazing we can see it at all, because that light is the 'lucky' portion that has reflected almost straight off the rocks or ice on its surface. But nevertheless, it is clearly visible when you capture 30 seconds worth of those photons by bouncing them yet again off a 20 inch highly silvered mirror in a hole in a dome in a field in Norfolk. Pluto's moon, Charon, would also be visible if it didn't lie within the small circle of fuzz around the image of Pluto.
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