{"id":60509,"date":"2024-07-01T07:14:59","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T07:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ece91c39-0531-42b9-95a4-1c174e2c22d4"},"modified":"2024-07-01T07:39:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T07:39:42","slug":"ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Ever seen Pluto with your own eyes? July 2024 is a great chance to see the dwarf planet is at its best"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Pete Lawrence\n <\/p>

Published: Monday, 01 July 2024 at 07:14 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Mag. +14.4 Pluto reaches opposition<\/a> on 23 July 2024 in an obscure part of the sky within Capricornus, making it as good a time as any to see whether you can spot the dwarf planet for yourself.<\/p>

To find Pluto visually, it sits in a field 5\u00b0 northeast of the distinctive kite-shaped asterism formed from mag. +4.5 59, +4.8 60, +4.4 62 and +4.7 Omega (\u03c9) Sagittarii.<\/p>

Alternatively, find the field 1.3\u00b0 south-southwest of mag. +5.9 4 Capricorni.<\/p>

Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU\/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Over the month, Pluto moves roughly 0.8\u00b0 on a west-southwest heading.<\/p>
If you want to capture an image of Pluto<\/a>, take an extended photograph of the region to get down below the mag. +14.4 threshold.<\/p>
This shouldn\u2019t be a problem even for smaller 50mm instruments.<\/p>
Compare shots over a couple of nights and see if you can detect the object that\u2019s moving between images.<\/p>
$\"Pluto\u2019s$
Pluto\u2019s location during opposition, July 2024 and (inset) nearby stars to mag. 15.0. Click chart to expand. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/figcaption><\/figure>
**About Pluto<\/strong><\/h2>**Many of use remember being taught about the ninth planet in school physics lessons, but Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet<\/a> by the International Astronomical Union in 2006.<\/p>
Pluto has several class definitions beyond dwarf planet; it\u2019s also a trans-Neptunian object (TNO), Kuiper belt object<\/a> (KBO) and a Plutino.<\/p>
It carries the minor planet designation (134340) Pluto.<\/p>
Pluto has a diameter of 2,377km. Its elliptical orbit takes it out as far as 49.3 AU and in as close as 29.7 AU from the Sun, taking 248 years to complete one circuit.\u00a0<\/p>
***Have you managed to observe or photograph Pluto at opposition in July 2024? Let us know by emailing*** ***contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n***
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By Pete Lawrence Published: Monday, 01 July 2024 at 07:14 AM Mag. +14.4 Pluto reaches opposition on 23 July 2024 in an obscure part of the sky within Capricornus, making it as good a time as any to see whether you can spot the dwarf planet for yourself. To find Pluto visually, it sits in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":60510,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best.png",1200,1200,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best-768x768.png",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best-1024x1024.png",800,800,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best.png",1200,1200,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/ever-seen-pluto-with-your-own-eyes-july-2024-is-a-great-chance-to-see-the-dwarf-planet-is-at-its-best.png",1200,1200,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Monday, 01 July 2024 at 07:14 AM Mag. +14.4 Pluto reaches opposition on 23 July 2024 in an obscure part of the sky within Capricornus, making it as good a time as any to see whether you can spot the dwarf planet for yourself. To find Pluto visually, it sits in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/60509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}