Take this image of Pluto and its moon Charon taken by so-called amateur astronomers Antonello Medugno and Daniele Gasparri from Italy: ... Mind you, Charon wasn’t even discovered until 1978 by a pro, using a 61 inch telescope! The image above was using a 14″ telescope, and is in fact much better than the discovery image.
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blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/28/amat...
blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/28/amateur-astronomers-capture-jupiter-charon/
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In fact, we now know that there are a very large number of small objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Neptune, some roughly the same size as Pluto. ... Charon was discovered in 1978 by Jim Christy. Prior to that it was thought that Pluto was much larger since the images of Charon and Pluto were blurred together.
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www.nineplanets.org/pluto.html
www.nineplanets.org/pluto.html
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This is the Faulkes Telescope Educational Guide ... Pluto is the only planet not to have been visited by a spacecraft. This means that we don't know much about it. Pluto’s moon, Charon, is very unusual because it is about half the size of the planet. It is closer in size to its planet than any other moon in the Solar System.
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www.le.ac.uk/ph/faulkes/web/planets/y_pl_pluto.html
www.le.ac.uk/ph/faulkes/web/planets/y_pl_pluto.html
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Much Ado about Pluto ... From the beginning, astronomers knew Pluto was a misfit: ... The total number of planets in the solar system would have been twelve: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Charon (a double planet), and 2003 UB313.
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www.plutopetition.com/unplanet.php
www.plutopetition.com/unplanet.php
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Pluto can't seem to catch a break. It was ignominiously demoted to 'dwarf planet' status after astronomers discovered an even larger icy world in the outer solar system. ... Pluto, on the other hand, has three moons - a large one called Charon and two small satellites discovered in 2005. All three of Pluto's moons lie in...
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www.newscientist.com/article/dn12069
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While much smaller than our Moon's 3500 kilometer diameter, this is so large compared to Pluto — more than half as big — that some astronomers are now speaking of the Pluto-Charon system as a "double planet.'' The next closest thing to a double planet is our own Earth-Moon system, but our satellite is only about...
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astrosociety.net/education/publications/tnl/10/10.html
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This past summer, a group of seven amateur astronomers from Italy worked on an observation campaign of Pluto, with hopes of capturing an image of its moon, Charon. ... That's truly amazing. With off-the-shelf equipment and a little know-how, amateur astronomers can do things professionals struggled with only 20-30 years ago.
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www.universetoday.com/2008/10/30/charon-imaged-by-amate...
www.universetoday.com/2008/10/30/charon-imaged-by-amateur-astronomers/
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An army of expert astronomers (the IAU) decided to define the word "planet" as for their own purposes .. and Pluto fits into their definition as a dwarf planet. Now I don't know about you .. ... inactive, on 03/14/2009, -0/+1If you read it, or skimmed (Skamed?) over it, It say's basically, Pluto and Charon orbit each other.
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digg.com/space/Ten_Things_You_Don_t_Know_About_Pluto
digg.com/space/Ten_Things_You_Don_t_Know_About_Pluto
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It took astronomers a while to be confident the "obvious" conclusion -- ... We now know, thanks to updated observations, that Pluto is less than 1500 miles in diameter, much smaller than that upper bound. This wasn't really possible to know until 1978 -- 48 years after its discovery -- when Pluto's moon Charon was discovered.
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www.astronexus.com/node/129
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