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Occultation of UCAC4 345-180315 by Pluto on the 19th of July 2016
JOA 2017, Vol. 7, No. 2, Page 15 Author(s): Wolfgang BeiskerAbstract: The 14th mag star UCAC4 345-180315 was occulted by Pluto on the evening of the 19th of July, 2016. The event could be observedfrom large parts of Europe, middle east and northern Africa as well. A campaign had been organized with many observers and observatories throughout Europe and other countries. The scientific goal was the ongoing monitoring of Pluto’s atmosphere as well as the improvementof Pluto’s astrometry. Because of the increasing distance of Pluto from the sun, scientists are waiting for a possible shrinking of its atmospheric pressure. The astrometric predictions were largely done by the RIO team and Bruno Sicardy’s team. A fainter star was occulted by Pluto 5 days before (14th of July). This was successfully observed and used as a pathfinder for the main occultation on the 19th. In a very helpful decision, the GAIA team released the star position of the target star 2 months before the GAIA DR1 catalogue was released. Together with a new ephemeris of the New Horizons team the occultation track for the 19th could be determined by this with very high precision (pre- versus post occultation calculation only differed in less than 100 km). Because of good weather conditions for the event in large parts of Europe, observations of about 30 stations could be recorded and analyzed.This report will describe the observations of about 20 stations and their lightcurve analysis. In a further report the atmospheric properties in theyear after the New Horizons flyby on will be discussed.