This was a makeshift, anti-frost measure …
20171119_TNO Occultation with 119315
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Category Archives: RECON Science
RECON set for first 2017-18 occultation tonight!
The RECON Project will be conducting the first TNO occultation campaign for the 2017-18 school year this evening. Centaur 01SQ73 will be occulting a magnitude 11.2 star on November 19 at 09:02 UT. For RECON teams, most will start recording 08:49 UT (that’s 12:49AM PST / 1:49AM MST this Sunday morning, November 19). You can check out the Event Detail Page for 01SQ73 for local recording windows.
Weather across the network is not perfect but much better than many of last year’s events! Team members can check out local sky forecasts on our Sky Conditions Page. Because the target star is reasonably bright, team members can also increase sense-up to get a better signal through partial clouds if needed.
Good luck to all of our RECON teams tonight.
Clear Sky Clock forecast map for 2017/11/19 at 9UT
772 Tanete field
357 Ninina Occultation
Total Solar Eclipse 2017 in Oregon
Just now starting to work on processing of images from our group TSE adventure near Shaniko, OR. Wanted to share at least one image I was able to capture.
RECON Carson City, 2060 Chiron
RECON Campaign involving Chiron!
Happy Fourth of July, RECON!!!
We wanted to provide a heads up about an exciting opportunity to measure Chiron, a 100-km Centaur with suspected ring structure(s)! We will have an event page up shortly, but the map below provided by LESIA at L’Observatoire de Paris shows that the probabilities of successfully recording this object are high and that the extended RECON network down to Arizona is well positioned to map any extended structures associated with the main body!
Prediction map for occultation by Centaur Chiron on 2017 August 15 UT
The event will occur early on the morning of Tuesday, August 15 around 11:51 UT (4:51AM PDT/MST). Twilight will be approaching during the occultation, but there should be plenty of time to get onto the field prior to this. Mark your calendars now and stay tuned for details!
Podcast on New Horizons Occultation Campaign
Marc has uploaded a new podcast regarding the New Horizons occultation campaign earlier this month involving 2014 MU69. The podcast series can be accessed using any browser and no downloads are needed to hear it through the SoundCloud player below. You can also subscribe to our podcasts through itunes which can be found by searching “tnorecon”.
Observers Track New Horizons’ Next Target – Sky & Telescope
Sky & Telescope just published a nice article about last week’s Southern Hemisphere occultation involving 2014 MU69:
Observers Track New Horizons’ Next Target – Sky & Telescope
All teams on the campaign collected useable data which is currently being analyzed. A photo of RECON Team Member Robert Reaves from Parker, Arizona is included in the article.
RECON Team Member Robert Reaves participating in MU69 campaign in Argentina
RECON Contributes to Southern Hemisphere Campaign
This is an exciting week for RECON Principal Investigator Marc Buie as well as RECON team member Robert Reaves from Parker, Arizona. Marc is leading a dual continent occultation campaign involving 22 telescopes being deployed in Argentina and South Africa to measure the shadow of 2014 MU69, the next target for the NASA New Horizons mission. This Friday evening (2017 June 3 at 03:11:50 UT) 22 teams will be deployed on both continents for the first of three occultation opportunities this summer.
Marc invited RECON team member Robert Reaves to join one of these teams for this week’s event. Both Marc and Robert are currently in South America prepping for the big event. For the next occultation opportunity in early July, Charlene Weisenborn from our Searchlight / Boulder City team will be participating as well.
Marc has been centrally in charge of working on predictions for these campaigns using Hubble and Gaia data. In addition to observing form Argentina this week, he will also be flying aboard NASA SOFIA during the July event. According to Marc, our experience setting up the RECON network of over 50 telescope sites has been very valuable in prepping for these campaigns. Because 2014 MU69 is only thought to be around 30 km, the spacing of the network will be much tighter than RECON, with telescopes spaced roughly every 10 km rather than 50 km.
For more information, you can check out the New Horizon’s Webpage and the following post: New Horizons Deploys Global Team for Rare Look at Next Flyby Target
Over the next six weeks, the New Horizons mission team gets an “MU69” preview of sorts – and a chance to gather some critical encounter-planning information – with a rare look at their target object from Earth.
Good luck, Marc, Robert, and all involved in Friday’s campaign!