Don’t worry Tony, we’re all beginners at this ...well, me at least
From what I understand...
Pluto occultations are visible the whole way along the track (providing night-time etc). The track being the area between the blue lines. The big dot being the central point, smaller dots being indications of time before and after central point. I have forgotten the actual spacing of the dots – Bruno did once explain it in an email I received. The width of the track is the expected area to see the occultation (between the blue lines).
“R” I read as Red magnitude
“V” as Visual magnitude
... I could be wrong.
Velocity – Pluto occultations are usually slow, something like a couple of minutes. I’m not sure how to interpret the number on the chart, I just know from having done a couple, and from what people say around the place about upcoming occultations.
I’m not sure what C/A and P/A are sorry.
I always just try to find:
- Time & date
- Star magnitude (I go by “R”)
I have to admit I gloss over most of the other parameters (I don’t need RA and Dec because I plate solve on Pluto)
OccultWatcher gives all the parameters in nice easy to use language, but I haven’t been using it long enough to know how many of these TNO occultations make their way in there – definitely not all, as I know there’s about 5 suitable to me before this time in June but only one in OccultaWatcher.
I expect others like AstroJunk or DaveGee will pop up their heads with much more meaningful input than I have to offer