How to See Pluto at Opposition as New Horizons Crosses the One Year Out Mark

(Before It's News)

Pluto passing near the star cluster M25 in late 2013. Credit: Dave Walker.

Are you ready for 2015? On July 14^th, 2015 — just a little over a year from now — NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft with perform its historic flyby of Pluto and its retinue of moons. Flying just 10,000 kilometres from the surface of Pluto — just 2.5% the distance from Earth to the Moon on closest approach — New Horizons is expected to revolutionize our understanding of these distant worlds.

And whether you see Pluto as a much maligned planetary member of the solar system, an archetypal Plutoid, or the “King of the Kuiper Belt,” you can spy this denizen of the outer solar system using a decent sized backyard telescope and a little patience.

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© David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2014. |
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Post tags: pluto 2014, pluto 2015, pluto discovery, pluto new horizons, pluto opposition, pluto planet, pluto plutoid

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