Discovery
Charon was discovered by U.S. Naval Observatory astronomer James Christy, using the 1.55-meter telescope at NOFS, and was formally announced to the world via the International Astronomical Union on July 7, 1978. On June 22, 1978, he had been examining highly magnified images of Pluto on photographic plates taken at the 61-inch Flagstaff telescope two of months prior. Christy noticed that a slight elongation appeared periodically. Later, the bulge was confirmed on plates dating back to April 29, 1965.
Subsequent observations of Pluto determined that the bulge was due to a smaller accompanying body. The periodicity of the bulge corresponded to Pluto's rotation period, which was previously known from Pluto's light curve. This indicated a synchronous orbit, which strongly suggested that the bulge effect was real and not spurious.
All doubts were erased when Pluto and Charon entered a five-year period of mutual eclipses and transits between 1985 and 1990. This occurs when the Pluto–Charon orbital plane is edge-on as seen from Earth, which only happens at two intervals in Pluto's 248-year orbital period. It was fortuitous that one of these intervals happened to occur so soon after Charon's discovery.
Read more about this topic: Charon (moon)
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