In preparation for next Sunday March 18 star occultation by Pluto, Steve Peterson and me imaged Pluto with Steve's 14" Schmidt Cassegrain, operating at F 5.5 with a focal reducer, and Keith Schlottman's SBIG st402me camera. Thank you Keith for your contribution, it is a great camera ! I have posted one of many images of Pluto and the target star in the Pluto page at http://hubbleed.bravehost.com/ This is a 4 sec exposure with clear filter, binned 2x2, 2 arcsec/pixel. Better images can be obtained with longer exposures, but we need time resolution. The I infrared photometric filter was not effective, because the star is brighter in the infrared but the camera sensor efficency drops rapidly in that range. We needed to calibrate the relative brightness of Pluto and the star with our setup. This observing effort has been inspired by Claude Plymate, TAAA member, Engineering Physicist at the National Solar Observatory. The occultation will be observed by Don Jennings group, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, with the 1.6 meter McMath Pierce solar telescope at 2 micron wavelength, and the 20" at the Kitt Peak Visitor Center. Claude has been setting up the observation. The principal investigator, Dr. Don Jennings, is an investigator with an instrument on the New Horizons spacecraft currently on its way to Pluto, after a Jupiter flyby. Don wants to use this occultation to help in determining details of Pluto's atmosphere. I encourage observers to try their skill and luck at this difficult observation. Victor Herrero hubble_edwin@xxxxxxxxx http://hubbleed.bravehost.com/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time with the Yahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#news -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.