The northern limit, centerline, and southern limit of Pluto's shadow are shown by the three lines across the globe pictured above. The shaded area represents where the sun is more than 12 degrees below the horizon. |
P507 Prediction (as of: 2007 07 20) |
| Geocentric Mid-time (yyyy month dd hh:mm:ss) | 2007 September 27 14:48:20± 00:00:57 UT |
| Minimum Geocentric Separation | 0.390± 0.023 arcsec |
| Position Angle (Pluto relative to the star; measured north through east) | –152.363 degrees |
| Geocentric Velocity | 11.2 km/sec |
| Prediction Version | P507-AST-3.0 |
| Reference star position: (UCAC2, at epoch of event) |
RA (h:m:s; J2000) | Dec (d:m:s; J2000) | UCAC Mag1 |
| P507 Catalog2 | 17 44 38.3944 ±0.0198 | –16 46 35.447 ±0.0321 | 8.7 |
| P507 Corrected | ------- | ------- | |
| 1The UCAC bandpass (579-642nm) is between V and R. 2UCAC2, at epoch of event. |
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| Offsets
from Reference Position/Ephemeris3 |
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| Body | RA (arcsec) | Dec (arcsec) | Notes |
P507 |
------- | ------- | ------- |
| Pluto |
–0.0148± 0.0220 |
+0.011± 0.021 | From 237 strip scans and 89 USNO-61inch Telescope frames. |
| 3All "offsets" are defined in the ("corrected" – "reference") or ("observed" – "calculated") sense. The offsets should be added to reference positions to get the measured positions, which we use to calculate the prediction. 4JPL Horizon's ephemeris (System DE413 - Pluto source file: PLU013; Earth center source file: DE405). |
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Discussion
On September 27th, 2007, Pluto will occult P507 (= 2UCAC 25587116; as originally published in McDonald & Elliot, 2000; Table). The above map and the following prediction results are from the P507's UCAC2 position at the time of the occultation and the analysis of 237 strip scans obtained at the Lowell Observatory Astrograph by Rosemary Pike, Amanda Bosh, and Allison Moberger during 2005-2007 (the strip scans from earlier years did not contain Pluto-Charon images) and 89 frames taken on 2005 and 2007 by Steve Levine with the 1.55-m Kaj Strand Astrometric Reflector.
Proper motion of the star has been applied up to the time of the occultation (according to the UCAC2 catalog, dRA: –14± 1.1 mas/yr, dDec: –28± 1.3 mas/yr). There are no measurements of P507's position, therefore the UCAC2 position and errors are used for the prediction.
Prediction Notes
Archive of all P507 occultation predictions based on alternate sources of data, including past predictions
Results of Previous Occultations
Results of the 2006 Pluto occultation are described and compared with results of the 1988 and 2002 occultation in the publication, Changes in Pluto's Atmosphere: 1988-2006
Last updated by Carlos A Zuluaga (czuluaga@mit.edu) 2007-07-20 08:45
Please direct all inquiries to Planetary Astronomy Lab (planetary-astronomy@mit.edu)
