Stellar occultations: Pluto, Mar 18, 2007

P445.3 Predictions

Other group's Predictions from Bruno Sicardy and Jim Elliot . Information also on the IOTA pages .

Predictions from our group Last update: 2006 Sept 10 Star Positions Using the UCAC2 catalog position as our reference psotions, we find the following star positions: 

Source        RA            Dec              dra     ddec errx erry
------------ -------------- -------------   ----- ------- ---- ----
UCAC2         17:55:05.6921 -16:28:34.457       0       0   65   59
2MASS         17:55:05.6900 -16:28:34.400     -30      57   60   60
UCAC2-2006    17:55:05.6947 -16:28:34.398      38      59   52   11
Bruno         17:55:05.6966 -16:28:34.380      65      77   15   15
-------------------------------------------------------------------
RA and Dec are epoch of date (where proper motion is know), equinox J2000.
dra and ddec are the offsets from the reference position in mas.
errx and erry are the quoted errors in position (and therefore in dra, ddec) in mas. UCAC2 errors include propogated proper motion error.
UCAC2: the position from the UCAC2 catalog, our reference position. 2MASS: the position from the 2MASS catalog. UCAC2-2006: the position remeasured with the UCAC2 telescope in 2006, provided by Norbert Zacharias. This catalog is available here . Bruno: astrometry provided by Bruno Sicardy, measured by Raoul Behrend, August 2006.

These positions are shown graphically as a gif .

Based on our geometric solution to the 2006 Jun 12 occultation, and the star positions measured then, we estimate that Pluto is East of the JPL DE413/Plu013 ephemeris by 25 +/- 14 milliarcsec and North by 44 +/- 14 milliarcsec, as described here .

Our best predictions as of 2006 Sep 10 combines this adjustment to the ephemeris with the UCAC2-2006 remeasured position. The map for this prediction, with closest-approach time of 2007 MAR 18 10:53:05.345, is here as a gif .

Last updated 2006 Sep 10 by Leslie Young, layoung@boulder.swri.edu , http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~layoung