Here's something that will either create a thrilling sense of excitement or make you yawn. It's a plot, created by my friends Victor and Steve, of the Pluto occultation event last weekend.
Although I was present, my involvement here was minimal; I was busy taking images and spectral data. Victor and Steve put an awful lot of time into planning this event, gathering the data, and now they are still in the process of the data reduction, analysis, and follow-up.
The data will probably be used in conjunction with data obtained by other amateurs as well as some professionals, including a few on nearby Kitt Peak. I didn't realize what a stir would result; my inbox has been buzzing with e-mails flying back and forth as the collaborating members give their input. It's really been an interesting experience.
This data shows a rather obvious dip in magnitude as Pluto passed in front of the star. There is currently some talk that perhaps at our latitude, we had more of a grazing occultation, i.e. the star was occulted by an atmosphere around Pluto rather than passing directly behind the planet from our point of view here in Southern Arizona.
For more information about our Pluto star party, including some pictures, click here to see Victor's Pluto Stellar Occultation Observation website. Also, an excellent writeup and data from the event can be seen on Bruce Gary's Pluto Occultation site.
By the way, the title to tonight's blog is based on one of my all-time favorite old-time radio shows, "Hallucination Orbit" on X-Minus One. The show is about a person stationed on Pluto.
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