Click here for a higher-resolution image

This picture is a combination of two images (one from around 5:00 UT on 15 June 2016, and one from 5:00 UT on 26 June 2016) which shows the movement of Pluto through the constellation Sagittarius. On the second date Pluto was about 3' away from the very bright (mag. 2.8) star Pi Sagittarii (= "Albaldah"), which lies northeast of the 'teapot' in Sagittarius.

At the lower left of the image is distant edge-on magnitude-13.9 galaxy PGC 62882. Small though it may appear, it lies at a distance of about 350 million light years, so its angular size of about 1.8 arcminutes translates into an actual diameter of about 190,000 light years - almost as big as the Andromeda Galaxy!

Also labelled is the faint trail of asteroid (12668) 1979 MX1, which when captured was shining at about magnitude 18 and was 1.7 AU away from the Earth. This asteroid was discovered on 25 June in 1979 (one calendar date before the date of my second image) by astronomers Schelte Bus and Eleanor Helin.

This is an L-only image, 80 minutes from the first night and 30 minutes from the second.