Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 16
News Notes
PLUTO I Dwarf Planet Occults Star in Sagittarius, Teams Head South
e of o
enterlin
TA S M A N I A
ccultati
Southe
on trac
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NEW
ZEALAND
rn limit
A N TA R C T I C A
Observers in New Zealand and Tasmania had front-row seats when Pluto covered a 12th-magnitude star on June 29, 2015.
The stars and planets really were
aligned on June 29th, when Pluto passed
directly in front of an obscure 12th-magnitude star in north-central Sagittarius.
The path of Pluto's "shadow" across Earth
fell mostly over open water between
Australia and Antarctica (see map above).
But several teams of astronomers fanned
out across New Zealand, Tasmania, and
southeastern Australia to record this rare
celestial opportunity.
A collaboration involving Williams
College, MIT, and Lowell Observatory
Cadejo
Macula
au
Soyuz
Colles
UG
H
Zheng He Montes
Baré
Montes
Oort
O
s
te
November 2015 sky & telescope
GI
on
Now that we've seen Pluto's surface features in detail for the first time (see page
18), all those features need suitable names.
The International Astronomical Union gets
the final say, but before the flyby the New
Horizons team ran a public campaign to
Challenger
Colles
RE
M
CTHULHU REGIO
ry
o
Fo
il F
rg
ice
Vi
atr
Be
SPUTNIK
PLANUM
illa
ssa
H
a
ss
sa
Columbia
Colles
BA
Fo
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Coleta de
VIKING Dados
Colles
TERRA
16
H AYA B U S A
TERRA
ste
awu
LOWELL
REGIO
VENERA
TERRA
■ J. KELLY BEATTY
Eriksson Rupes
PIONEER
TERRA
V O YA G E R
TERRA
u
Co
ngg
Dja
Pluto Map
deployed observers at 12 telescopes in
nine locations. One of those, Mount John
Observatory on New Zealand's South
Island, was positioned very near to the
predicted centerline. During the event's
midpoint its telescopes recorded a central
flash - created when Pluto's tenuous
atmosphere acted like a lens to refract a
concentrated beam of light toward Earth.
Eliot Young (Southwest Research Institute) dispatched seven teams, most of
which paired a professional observer with
an undergraduate student. Some used
Norgay
Krun Macula
Morgoth Montes
Macula
Dorsa
Quidlivun
nium
Cavus Pandemo
solicit ideas and votes within a few broad
categories: beings and locales associated
with the underworld, scientists and engineers
involved in the study of Pluto, historic explorers, and spacecraft. Charon will get monikers
Sle
ipn
ir
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Simonelli
(crater)
TA R TA R U S
DORSA
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Fo Wuk
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Northe
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S&T: GREGG DINDERMAN, SOURCE: CARLOS ZULUAGA / MIT
AUSTRALIA
an existing telescope, but others lugged
"portable" 14-inch telescopes to desirable
locations. Veteran occultation observer
Bruno Sicardy (Paris Observatory) also
established observing stations at the
just-opened Greenhill Observatory near
Hobart, Tasmania, and at a robotic 0.6-m
telescope at Lauder, New Zealand.
John Talbot provided coordination
for the Royal Astronomical Society of
New Zealand, and more than two dozen
amateurs participated. Talbot reports
that many succeeded despite interference
from a nearly full Moon only 30°° away.
Meanwhile, NASA had dispatched the
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared
Astronomy (SOFIA) to Christchurch, New
Zealand, to observe Southern objects for
six weeks. Flying above South Island's
coastline, its team of scientists, engineers,
and reporters watched the event unfold
from an altitude of 39,000 feet (11.9 km).
The occultation observations confirmed that Pluto's atmosphere has
not entirely frozen onto its surface, as
planetary scientists had speculated. New
Horizons corroborated the result when
it swept past Pluto two weeks later (see
page 18). Read more about the adventures
Down Under at http://is.gd/plutoshadow.
Ala
Macula
Balrog
Macula
Vucub-Came
Macula
NASA / JHU-APL / SWRI
for fictional travelers, their vessels, and their
destinations, along with authors, artists, and
directors who have envisioned those explorations. See ourpluto.org for details. ✦
■ J. KELLY BEATTY
http://www.is.gd/plutoshadow
http://www.ourpluto.org
Sky and Telescope - November 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - November 2015
Contents
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 1
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 3
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - A
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - B
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 4
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 5
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 6
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 7
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 8
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 9
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 10
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Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 15
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Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 17
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 18
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 19
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 20
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Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Cover3
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Cover4
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