Poor Pluto

At least for the time being, poor Pluto has been demoted from planethood, though not without controversy—there is evidently a large contingent of astronomers that believe that the vote a couple days ago at the International Astronomical Union was “hijacked”. I understand well the classification difficulties the astronomers are getting into, but the demotion is still a bit sad. I’ve never seen Pluto—it’s a 14th-magnitude speck that though well within reach of my 7” telescope, I think I would have to be in a lot better skies than in the soupy air of living at 45 feet elevation in the Sacramento Valley to do so. Planet or not, I’d still like to see that speck someday.