Lots of Ink: NASA and Amateurs pursue Pluto’s stellar eclipse
Among the first epochal, global science campaigns in history was in 1769 when the British Admiralty dispatched Captain James Cook to the South Seas in order to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun and thus gain improved measurement of the Earth’s diameter. Aiding his navigation was one of his time’s greatest mechanical inventions – the motion and temperature resistant chronometers, or clocks, made by master craftsman James Harrison.
(Ooops Dept – This post looked bare for awhile. I just noticed, a day after it went up, that it had gone the whole time with no little picture. It did when I last had seen it – must’ve gotten occulted by a bad finger stroke as I published it. Note to self: Always and that means always check the site before sending the emails out and again after, and before leaving the desk! )
Well another event sort of like that just passed, but without the hooplah of Cook’s epochal voyage. In this case expeditions set out far across the Pacific to watch the planet Pluto transit – actually, to totally occult – two distant stars. The aim was to get some info about Pluto’s atmosphere and diameter. Navigation, one presumes, was aided by Cesium atomic clocks aboard global positioning system satellites.
The prime expedition was a flight out over the Pacific by NASA’s latest airborne astronomical machine, the new SOFIA or Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. It’s a converted long-range 747SP jetliner with a big German-made telescope mounted in a fuselage port. It was overbudget and late, but is at last at work. This was its first for-real assignment. Other teams, mostly amateurs, set out for Australia to catch the fleeting, flanking shadow of Pluto’s tiny moon Hydra. Not many results are yet analyzed, but NASA at least hit it on the button.
I think the news is quite cool. But it received little coverage outside a few specialty outlets. Tis true that such occultations have happened before. One expects more coverage will emerge in the next few days.
Stories on the Kuiper’s Interception of Pluto’s Star Shadow:
- Space.com – Flying Telescope Chases Down Pluto’s Shadow ;
- InfoZine - SOFIA successfully Observes Challenging Pluto Occultation.
- UniverseToday – Nancy Atkinson: Double Occultations This Week Will Reveal More Details About Pluto ; Filed just before SOFIA’s flight, describes both events and who’s looking for what.
- Irish Weather Online – Mark Dunphy: Pluto Casts A Shadow Over The Pacific Ocean ;
Stories on Amateurs Hunting the Shadows of Pluto’s Tiny Moon ; Nat’l Geographic Soc’y put up some money so, natch…
- Nat’l Geographic – Victoria Jaggard , a series of posts. June 20: NG Field Notes: Chasing Pluto Across the Pacific ; June 25 Got a Telescope? Pluto Hunters Need Your Help ;
- Nat’l Geographic – Brian Handwerk (Jun 22) Pluto to Make a Star “Wink Out” Twice This Week ;
Grist for the Mill: Williams College Press Release ; If an eclipse or occultation is unfolding somewhere on Earth, chances are Jay Pasachoff is involved.
- Charlie Petit
