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Pluto Occultation March 18, 2007

Pluto Occultation March 18, 2007. As seen from the Robert and Elisabeth Moore Observatory Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA. Equipment Used. CBC Moore Observatory Meade 16-inch LX200GPS telescope on Paramount ME mounting Meade DSI CCD Camera CCD Soft V5 for data reduction

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Pluto Occultation March 18, 2007

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  1. Pluto Occultation March 18, 2007 As seen from the Robert and Elisabeth Moore Observatory Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA

  2. Equipment Used • CBC Moore Observatory • Meade 16-inch LX200GPS telescope on Paramount ME mounting • Meade DSI CCD Camera • CCD Soft V5 for data reduction • Excel for data reduction • After the fact, Occular the new program being described tomorrow was also used for data reduction verification

  3. Our chances of seeing the event were very slim… Predicted Worst Case Predicted Best Case

  4. Our altitude at the time of the event was a scant 12 degrees!

  5. Our predicted light curve was very small and very short (<200 sec)

  6. Event Observation Data Because of the predicted short duration of our event, we started early and recorded data much longer than we expected we needed to • Started observing at 10:46:31 UT (2:46 AM PST!) • Ended observing at 10:57:13 UT • Obtained a total of 129 images • Average time between images was 4.98 seconds • Total duration was 642 seconds!

  7. This is what we saw… …we saw the start of the event but didn’t record long enough to see the end of the event…

  8. Actual event data • FWHM disappearance was at 10:52:19.600 • Disappearance transitioned over 7 readings, or, 34.86 seconds • Begin D was at 10:52:02.17 UT • End D was at 10:52:37.03 UT

  9. This was our actual simulated light curve lasting +/- 400 seconds

  10. Here is the final plot of our data by Bruno Sicardy

  11. We had a VERY Successful Event (and all the major observatories got skunked…. )

  12. Acknowledgments • Michael Garvin and Phil Holt with the Tri-City Astronomy Club helped me practice with the DSI Video camera, as I had never tried to do photometry with a CCD still camera before • Michael Richmond graciously agreed to analyze my photometric data to extract the light curve • Bruno Sicardy provided predictions and post data processing support • David Dunham relayed the email message that prompted me to attempt the event despite the odds against seeing it

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