9-1 = 8

Now that the smoke appears to be clearing, I wanted to comment on this whole Pluto demotion circus of recent weeks. Pluto has always been considered an oddity. It has a highly eccentric orbit (non-circular) as well as a very inclined orbit (Pluto leaves the "equatorial" region of the solar system, unlike the rest of the planets). We do not yet know all the details of it's composition, but we know enough to state that Pluto has compositional characteristics that put it on par with comets and general icy bodies of the outer solar system. In recent years, astronomers have discovered a number of large icy bodies in the outer solar system. This region, the Kuiper Belt and the larger Oort Cloud, are potentially populated with a dozen or so Pluto sized objects. So, when the IAU sat down to consider the definition of a planet, in my mind they were faced with two options: add more planets to the solar system, or create a new category of bodies. I think they chose the right option, which is to add one category rather than add a new planet every 5 or 10 years when we find another large Kuiper Belt object. This leaves us with eight classical planets and an open-ended number of "dwarf" planets. Pluto, or I should say 134340, is a member of a class of bodies that number in the millions. There's only one Earth, or Mars, or Jupiter. In my mind, Pluto just isn't that odd anymore. I think of it as the Kuiper Belt's ambassador to the solar system, an object that tells us the outer solar system is a very interesting and important region that may have brought water and even the seeds of life to Earth. That's not too shabby, if you can't be a planet.

the setup

This photo shows my typical setup with the new telescope. I was targeting Jupiter this particular night and I was attempting to image the planet with my small CCD camera. The gray wire running from the telescope to the USB port of the laptop is the CCD. All the other wires are the various power cords, including a 50 foot extension cord that I actually throw over the "roof" of my condo and onto my patio one flight beneath where this photo was taken. From this top flight of my complex I can see most of the southern sky.

As for imaging Jupiter, it didn't turn out all that well. I think there was a brushfire in the area and it was kicking up smoke that made the seeing terrible. I tried to slew to some deep sky objects but no success, the seeing just wouldn't cooperate. So, it was time to break down the set and despite the tangle of wires, everything was put away in about 5 minutes.

nearing Victoria Crater

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, nearing 3 years on Mars and 5 miles on the odometer, is fast approaching a geological treasure trove. In the next week Opportunity will reach the rim of Victoria Crater, a half mile wide impact crater that is over 200 feet deep. Layered rock in the crater rim should present a clean cross section of millions of years of Martian history. Opportunity has already gathered evidence for the ancient presence of liquid water on Mars at Endurance Crater, a much smaller impact feature. Victoria Crater will hopefully provide more evidence for how extensively liquid water flowed on the surface and for how long. The image shows Opportunity's progress to date with the yellow trace.