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OCCULTATION OF UCAC2 24917003 BY 134340 II Nix
2010 June 22


Fifteen stations attempted this event.

Sadly only one, Paul Tervit, clearly observed a miss. The rest being Clouded out or eqipment failure.

Prediction from Bruno Sicardy :
This is an alert for a possible stellar occultation by Pluto's small
satellite, that could be visible from NZ and AUS, on 22 June 2010 around
09:55 UT (night 22/23 June), see map attached.
Map
The star is red, and is about 1 mag *brighter* than Pluto in red (R=12.5). See chart attached
FOV
Nix is small (100 km across), and uncertainties are of the order of +/-
1000 km, so the probability is low. But payoff could be high, and the
observation does not take much time Max duration about 3.6 sec ,
Mag drop about 0.7, at the beginning of evening, so that the dinner is not ruined...

Observational notes:


Station Name: Paul Tervit
Negative for this observation.
5 Oaks Observatory / Marton, NZ
175 22 17E 40 04 22S
141m Elev
12" SCT @ f6.3
Video Camera + KiwiOSD GPS + DVR
Observation started 22062010 0940 UTC  J2455369.9028
Observation Finished 22062010 1000 UTC  J2455369.9167
Sky clear / Some cloud to the west / Seeing Pickering 6 / Bright 86.8% Moon
The 13.9 mag target star easily identifiable with camera.
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Station Name: Herald D Home    -35:24  +149:03
Comments: Clouded out
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Station Name: Roland Idaczyk
Not much luck either in Ngaio, Wellington -41° 15´ +174° 45´
The sky was clear but there were some reasonable wind gusts that caused considerable vibration.
After a tough day at work I found the time a bit short to get the CCD operational,
the field identified etc. I did not quite manage to correctly home in on Pluto,
but took an image anyway at the expected time of the event.
The resulting image shows very shaky star trails ... but no occultation.
I was using the 14-inch with a F/6.3 focal reducer giving me a 13.2' x 10' FoV,
which is pretty small especially in combination with the slow operation of the ST-6
camera, when trying to locate a particular field.
Anyway, next time I'll try again!
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Station Name: Brian, Darfield 	Lat:-43 28 Long: 172 06
Comments: Cloud and rain at Darfield, so no observation for the Nix event.  I imagine
all places further south in NZ similar.
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Station Name: Martin Unwin
Ditto West Melton -43:31  +172:22    - southerly hit about 21:00.
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Station Name: Ashley Pennell, Dunedin   -45:52   170:29
No chance of any observation sorry
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Station Name: Bill Allen	  -41:29  +173:50
Unfortunately we were clouded out for the Nix event.
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Station Name: Bradshaw J Home     -27:21  +152:52
Comments: Clouded out
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Station Name: Steve Kerr Home	 -23:16  +150:30
Comments: Missed and Cloud interference
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Station Name: Graham Blow, Warwick Kissling  at Carter Observatory  -41:17  +174:46
I'm afraid that we are unable to report a successful Nix observation.
Graham Blow and Warwick Kissling observed using the 16" Boller & Chivens
at the Carter Observatory, Wellington, together with a WATEC 120N camera
& digital video recorder. For once the night was perfect and all the
equipment worked satisfactorily. However we had considerable trouble
identifying the field, and in the end ran out of time. We commenced
observing what we thought was the target star around 09:45 UT, but
further investigation after the event showed that we were slightly off
and Pluto was just outside the field.
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Station Name: DaveGault Home    -33:40  +150:38
Comments: Clouded out
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Station Name: John Talbot Home  -40:51   +175:02
I managed to get the target field but had 6 clouds go over in 8 minutes
of recording and with wind shaking I cant extract anything useful.
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Station Name: Peter Graham	-41:13	+175:28
There were good conditions in Martinborough but I failed to get a result
because I couldn't get my gear working properly. I did make progress
though for future events.
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Station Name: Deborah Hambly	-35:57  +173:45
Very cloudy - 'nix' chance of getting 'Nix'
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Station Name:  Gordon Hudson, KPO,  -41:06   +174:50
Clear but recoded but on wrong field.
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