Hugh has answered the question of the email address nicely. Thanks Hugh !
Regarding the video of the occultation. Well it has not happened yet but in general John Talbot from NZ will be collecting the reports, and the light curves. Many people also post the movies on line. I will try to advise on this page of web addresses if I find any have occurred.
Because of Pluto's atmosphere it is a slow disappearance and reappearance, so it takes a while to look like anything is happening, unlike a normal asteroid occultation where the D and R are pretty sharp.
Because of Pluto's atmosphere it is a slow disappearance and reappearance, so it takes a while to look like anything is happening, unlike a normal asteroid occultation where the D and R are pretty sharp.
Brilliant.. Thanks, this what I hope we can get on June 29th too..
News from the MIT crew - their prediction has moved north. Now Melbourne and perhaps as far north as Canberra is/are in the shadow. Previously their estimate was Launceston was at the northern extent of the shadow.
The MIT epheremis has moved South..
Weather update over NZ at around Occultation..
Clouds over lower South Island, but East coast from Blenheim down to Timaru and most of North Island could be good.
It turns out there's a rather easy way to locate the target star.
If you point your telescope at 5.0 mag. xi1 Sagittarii (= SAO 187498, J2000 RA 18h 57.3m, Dec. -20 deg. 39'), then turn off all tracking (or don't push your DOB), then 3 minutes 28 seconds later, the 12.3-mag. target star will be almost centred in the FOV.
Last edited by DaveGee; 26-06-2015 at 12:24 PM.
Reason: because I can...
quote
Night before and/or after the event: Pluto and the target star must be observed on the same field of view and same equipment, but not merged, at the same airmass (altitude).
This allows to calibrate the target against the reference stars, and then derive Pluto's contribution during the occultation. The exposure time for these calibration images can be higher than that of the occultation, to improve photometry
endquote
Last edited by DaveGee; 26-06-2015 at 12:35 PM.
Reason: :-)
Shevill Mathers in Hobart Mercury on Pluto occultation
Shevill Mathers, in Cambridge, Tasmania, kindly forwarded me the attached
article from the Hobart Mercury dated 27th June 2015.
Shevill has been entrusted by Professor Jay Pasachoff, director of the
Hopkins Observatory in the United States, to observe and time
the occultation using an arsenal of equipment that Professor Pasachoff
has forwarded him.
We recently assisted upgrading Shevill's Argo Navis with the latest Argo Navis
Version 3.0.1 firmware and Shevill uses the Argo Navis to assist him in
locating Pluto.
We wish everyone the best of luck in their endeavours and clear skies!
Just got a break in the clouds and was interested to see how much difference the Moon made - fortunately not as much as I thought that it might.
The target (occultation) star is the brighter one almost dead centre (slightly below) of the image, and Pluto is the first object out at 5 o'clock (approx 25% of distance to edge of frame in 5 o'clock direction).
Exposure: 1.6 seconds
Other data from plate solve:
Center (RA, Dec)285.186, -20.694) Center (RA, hms):19h 00m 44.718s Center (Dec, dms):-20° 41' 39.852" Size:22.1 x 14.7 arcmin Radius:0.221 deg
Orientation:Up is 54.2 degrees E of N
Let's hope for clear skies Tuesday morning!
Chris
Last edited by ChrisM; 28-06-2015 at 11:26 PM.
Reason: added plate solve data
Shevill Mathers in Tasmania emailed me this morning and reported that
unfortunately he was bed-bound with a fever and loss of balance from the
flu. To add to his disappointment, he reported the night was clear.
nice, I was wondering if anyone nabbed it. weather has been terrible.
At the moment, we know that SOFIA flying over the Southern Ocean did get the central flash. That's awesome. (Source:- Twitter, #PlutoOcc2015)
From OccultWatcher reports, NZ, four sites saw occultations, of 60 sec, 71 sec, 102 sec, and 120 sec. This would likely include the atmospheric ingress and egress, hence the length. Several other sites had issues. The most southerly observer in Tasmania did not see an occultation. At least two sites in NZ have not yet reported in.
All told there were forty three sites listed on OccultWatcher, from Northern Queensland to the south of NZ. This may well be a record for occultation observing and recording in the southern hemisphere.
At the moment, there are no YouTube clips of the occultation listed. These may surface in the near future.
that's such a shame to hear about Shevill . He must be thoroughly annoyed and sad that he couldn't take part. He's been a great and helpful friend to me on facebook for many years and he was telling me about his part in this. No wonder he's been quiet on facebook today - poor thing - a blow physically and mentally . He's one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Thank you so much for the update.
Hi Tony,
Such great information you and others are providing on this thread. I have to admit much of it is doing my head in, but it's still so very interesting!
Anyhow, I thought you might be interested in this article. Raj Pillai posted it on his Pluto Huggers page over on facebook.
SOFIA had dramas as the path kept changing, even right up to the last hour! But phew, it came through in the end.
nice, I was wondering if anyone nabbed it. weather has been terrible.
The clouds thickened on the evening of the occultation, so with 3.5 hours until target time, I reluctantly closed up my observatory and packed a couple of tripods and DSLRs plus a small scope in the car and headed east expecting to find the reported clear skies after about one hour of travel. No such luck - so I kept driving. After nearly 3 hours on the road, I finally got a break in the clouds and found somewhere to pull up off the road.
There was not much time left to set up the equipment, and the EON80 scope (500 mm FL) on a camera tripod is far from ideal. Clouds started to form, but at least I had some view. With the scope pointed somewhere in the general direction of Pluto, I took over 600 2-second images. The images are currently being uploaded to the team at MIT for analysis.
I got home after a 430 km unplanned outing feeling somewhat satisfied that at least I saw something, but have learned a few lessons on the way.
After a rechecking my video several times, as well as being told I must be within the limits of Pluto's atmosphere, I finally found the tell-tale dip of an atmospheric graze in the signal. I'm posting the light curve for you all to see as I don't think it gives any secrets away, or breaks any information embargoes, it just shows what kind of effect you get with this kind of thing. I have seen a curve from a NZ observer who saw a total occultation by the body of the planet, and it looks quite different to this, but still has the expected slow fade down to a base-level during the main event, then a slow fade back up. So knowing that my light curve is just atmosphere, its a bit different, but I'm still intrigued as to why it's not an even curve - the egress of the graze is steeper than the ingress.
ChrisM, John Talbot is interested in collating local results for the RASNZ Occ Section report on this event, but if you're working with MIT you might be embargoed? They are looking for other people who might have caught the atmosphere and we might be the only people in that zone. Dean Hooper was too far north, he went to Nagambie in hope of clear skies but got caught in fog. The Dunham's got clouded out but were further north again, anyway. I'm just thinking you might have been inside of me, as Dave Herald had planned to do a station at Bombala in NSW that would have been south of me also.
Shevill Mathers in Hobart Mercury on Pluto occultation
285.186, -20.694) Center (RA, hms):19h 00m 44.718s Center (Dec, dms):-20° 41' 39.852" Size:22.1 x 14.7 arcmin Radius:0.221 deg 
. He must be thoroughly annoyed and sad that he couldn't take part. He's been a great and helpful friend to me on facebook for many years and he was telling me about his part in this. No wonder he's been quiet on facebook today - poor thing - a blow physically and mentally 
