u/yagza

I may have possibly captured Pluto Using my Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ and my IPhone 16+. I’m skeptical about this being possible but I’d like to know what those of you who are more experienced think of this.

I sought out Pluto tonight on my Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130az with my IPhone 16+ and I didn’t really expect to find anything besides its general location.

I was surprised to see this faint dot right where Pluto should be according to Stellarium. I still am very skeptical that I could pick up something so distant, dim, and small with my humble setup. Id love to know what you guys think and if you can positively confirm or deny my potential Pluto capture.

I started of by finding Saturn through my StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ and 25mm eyepiece. Then I star hopped my way down to Neptune’s location. I verified that I correctly identified Neptune by matching nearby stars to the Stellarium Star map. And then I started taking lots of photos through lots of apps!

The photo you see first is actually just a still from a video I took of Neptune passing by. I believe I was using a 10mm eyepiece with a 2x Barlow and zoomed in on phone’s camera quite a bit.

I used my IPhone 16+ to capture this, It’s not the ideal set up for doing astrophotography but it’s what I’ve got and I’m gonna use it!

They didn’t show up on any radar app!!! I had no idea they were coming. I’m also not sure what they were doing or what the names of the helis are. I got pictures of them on the ground too but I’m not sure if I can post those. In the air is fair game I think but I’m not sure about on the ground.

Taken around 3:00pm EST on Nikon Z50II with a Tamron 150-500 lens and processed through Lightroom.

Nikon Z50II with Tamron 150-500

Terrible photos of a really cool event lol
Shot on Nikon Z50II with my Tamron 150-500
Processed through Lightroom

I exaggerated the first photo but I have no idea why it keeps popping up in my photos!!! Any help would be appreciated

First time doing a photo like this, I think my iso was too high but I’m not sure, I’d love to bring out details on the dark side but I need to do more research on how to capture/bring that out

Shot on Nikon Z50II + Tamron 150-500. Processed through Adobe Lightroom and photoshop

I actually met the pilot of this heli at the grocery store last week, I saw him in uniform and asked him what he flew, I showed him some pictures and he said he flew in this one!! I saw it again today and took better pictures!