After a year and half of trying (off and on), we finally managed to image a Trans-Neptunian Object (also known as Kuiper Belt Objects) -- thanks to a suggestion from Paul Comba that 2000 EB173 would be a good object to attempt.
The first image below was made by FBAC members Joe Dellinger, Bill Dillon, and Cynthia Gustava. The image is the result of stacking six, four-minute exposures taken with our club's "Cookbook" CCD camera and 18 inch (46 cm) reflector on 22 June 2000, at 03:45:00 UT (average time of the images). The object is bracketed by vertical and horizontal bars above and to the right of the object.
The second image was taken by Alex Cruz, Len Casady, and Randy Pepper on the following night, using the same equipment and number of exposures. Average time of the exposure set was 03:47:30 UT, 23 June 2000. Randy's program was used to flat field, hot-cold pixel remove, and stack the images. Note the slight shift in position. Astrometric positions were reported to the Minor Planet Center using the program Astrometrica.
2000 EB173 was 29.6 A.U. (Astronomical Units = mean earth-sun distance) from the earth when the images were taken, or 4.4 billion kilometers (2.75 billion miles). 2000 EB173 is approximately 300-700 kilometers in diameter.
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