I finally got around to processing some non-asteroid data (the weather has not cooperated for several days). I took this image on the evening of the 29th of July.
Even at roughly 3 billion miles Neptune is bright enough that I had to take a short image (5 sec) to prevent over exposure. As indicated, one of the bright objects immediately to the right of the planet is Neptune’s largest moon Triton.
Neptune & Triton [CV:1x5s]
Triton is the 7th largest moon in the solar system (our moon is fifth on the list). Triton is somewhat unique in that it is in a retrograde orbit which supports the current theory that it is likely a captured Kuiper belt object. Imagery taken during Voyager 2’s flyby in 1989 shows a very thin atmosphere and active cryovolcanism in the form of nitrogen geysers.
