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OCCULTATION OF UCAC2_24919939 BY 134340 Pluto
2010 June 04


Four stations out of 22 that were set to attempt this event recorded an occultation.
Bill Allen made separate recordings on two telescopes at the same location.

Four clearly observed misses were also recorded and 12 were clouded cut or had equipment problems.

View the updated prediction. Observers:

Pluto occultation - 2010 June 04

Clouded or other non observations are shown with long dashed line below.

Pluto occultation - 2010 June 04

Discussion:

The circle above is plotted at the expected 2306 km diameter of Pluto. With three chords and a nearby miss to the North it is possible to be confident that the central line of the event was south of the three chords.

The figures below show the light curves of the occultation.

Bill Allen Vintage Lane

Pluto occultation - 2010 June 04

Bill Allen Bootes3

Pluto occultation - 2010 June 04

Alan Gilmore and Brian Loader

Pluto occultation - 2010 June 04

Stuart Parker

Pluto occultation - 2010 June 04

Observational Data:


Message recieved 3-Dec-2010:
You might like to update your report "Pluto Occultation June 4- 2010",
John Greenhill & Shevill Mathers were not clouded out as previously reported by Bruno,
we did get good data but due to software problems with a new camera, it took us
a long time to reduce the images.
We used a Raptor Merlin EMCCD 247 USB 2.0 high speed camera.
The software bug we encountered has since been fixed.
Kind Regards & Seasons Greeting 2010.
Shevill

---------------
Observation details for MP (134340) Pluto (only definite misses and positives included here)
By Star              UCA 2U24919939
On 2010-06-04  at 15:35:24.0
_______________________________

Observer   Hristo Pavlov
Location   Jugiong,NSW,AU
Longitude  +148:19
Latitude   -34:49
Altitude   335 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   20 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis

Missed

Comments:   Report prepopulated by IOTA Reporting Add-in for OW ver.1.4
_______________________________

Observer   Bill Allen
Location   Blenheim, NZ
Longitude  +173:50
Latitude   -41:29
Altitude   38 m
Datum      Other
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   40 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     other Video, photo or photoelectric
Disappearance  15:34:54.00
Reappearance   15:36:02.00
Comments: Computer clock synchronised with Dimension 4 v 5.0 to tick.usno.navy.mil
every 15 minutes
Observations were made with a SBIG STL 1001E camera with a clear filter.
Exposure time 2.5 seconds.
Approx readout time was 3.5 seconds giving a time between exposure start times of 6 seconds.
_______________________________

Observer   Bill Allen
Location   Blenheim, NZ
Longitude  +173:50
Latitude   -41:29
Altitude   38 m
Datum      Other
Telescope  Bootes 3
Aperture   60 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     other Video, photo or photoelectric
Disappearance  15:34:49
Reappearance   15:36:03
Comments: 60cm telescope located at the Vintage Lane Observatory.
The exposure was 0.5 seconds and the CCD readout time 1.25 seconds.
A sloane r' filter was used.
_______________________________

Observer   Brian Loader
Location   Mt John Observatory, Tekapo, NZ
Longitude  +170:27
Latitude   -43:59
Altitude   1010 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture  100 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis
Disappearance  15:35:00.00
Reappearance   15:36:20.00
Comments: Watec 120N camera at 8x integration.
See accompanying email for further detail
_______________________________

Observer   Jonathan Bradshaw
Location   Samford, QLD, AU
Longitude  +152:50
Latitude   -27:22
Altitude   90 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   35 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis

Missed

Comments: Good data recorded using GSTAR-EX camera at 96 frame integration
(1.92 seconds) to give a good S/N ratio. Analysis with Tangra shows nothing
that wasn’t matched by the many comparison stars.
_______________________________

Observer   Dave Gault
Location   West Wyalong,NSW,AU
Longitude  +147:14
Latitude   -33:55
Altitude   245 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   20 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis

Missed

Comments: Light curve plot included with this report.
_______________________________

Observer   Stephen Kerr
Location   Glenlee,QLD,AU
Longitude  +150:30
Latitude   -23:16
Altitude   50 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   30 cm
Seeing
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis

Missed

Comments: Video camera integrating at 120msec.
_______________________________

Observer   Stuart Parker
Location   Oxford, NZ
Longitude  +172:13
Latitude   -43:18
Altitude   221 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   30 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis
Disappearance  15:35:08.00
Reappearance   15:35:15.00
Comments: Recording ended before full R complete Analysed with Tangra

    

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