Who/what is “Chiro”, and is there any relation to Plutos moon?
Chiro is a very common name given to pet dogs in Japan. The “special” Chiro that is legendary among amateur Japanese astronomers is the name of the pet dog of acclaimed astrophotographer Akira Fujii whose photos have appeared in Sky and Telescope and numerous other publications. Chiro accompanied Fujii on numerous outings as well as to star parties and other “astro-meetings”. In addition, Fujii used Chiro as both the mascot and pen name for a series of introductory books in astronomy primarily aimed at younger astronomers. There is no relation with Pluto’s moon which is named “Charon”. Further, as far as we can tell, there is not even an indirect connection to asteroid 2060 Chiron.
