New Horizons Probe - Occultation of 2014 MU69 observed successfully using SharpCap!

[rwg]

Very excited by the news that the team observing the occultations of stars by the next target for the New Horizons space probe (Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69) have successfully observed the event in Argentina on the 17th July.

Every one of the 22 ground based mobile telescopes deployed for these observations were using QHY cameras with on-board GPS and SharpCap to control the cameras!

I believe that they were using the built in Python scripting language inside SharpCap to control the observation sequence.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-team-strikes-gold-in-argentina

These observations should help pin down the size, nature and position of 2014MU69 and allow the flypast to be planned properly.

cheers,

Robin

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice. Great accolade for all your hard work developing SharpCap

[Wyvern]

Proud daddy then?......... and testament to SharpCap's standing.

Les

[Delboy_Hog]

Congratulations!  Definitely testament to your hard work.

 

(And isn't it remarkable what scientists will now probably be able to tell you about 2014 MU69 on the basis of that image sequence!)

[rwg]

4 minutes ago, Delboy_Hog said:

 

(And isn't it remarkable what scientists will now probably be able to tell you about 2014 MU69 on the basis of that image sequence!)

Yep, indeed. I can definitely see that the star fades over 1-2 frames in the animation and then comes back in a similar way. Part of that will be down to timing of the actual occultation start/end (ie if the star is hidden half way through an exposure then you get a 1/2 brightness frame) but I still expect there is info to be had in that brightness sequence about all sorts of aspects of the target

cheers

Robin