Kodak moments at Pluto: Help requested Options

[john_s]

Hi folks-

We are deep in the process of planning the Pluto encounter (we're doing it now while all the essential people are still on the payroll!), and following the great success of our Jupiter "Kodak moment" program (thanks Hendric!), we are once again soliciting help from UMSF in planning scenic imaging of the Pluto system. Unlike at Jupiter, the only time when bodies in the Pluto system occult each other is within an hour of closest approach, when we'll be too busy for purely scenic imaging, but there may be interesting alignments or other opportunities at other times.

To help find these opportunities, Henry Throop has kindly made available his New Horizons Geometry Visualizer, NHGV, which is the science team's prime geometry planning tool. It's at http://soc.boulder.swri.edu/nhgv . The tool shows the view of selected targets from the spacecraft at any time during the encounter. Below is some more detailed information from Henry.

More information on the New Horizons instrument capabilities is available here.

We'd like inputs by early June if possible- thanks in advance!
John.

I have developed an on-line, graphical tool for planning and visualizing New Horizons observations. This is a web-based, graphical tool which uses SPICE to plot the position of bodies in the sky, and as they pass through the NH FOVs.

The program is online at http://soc.boulder.swri.edu/nhgv .

Features of NHGV (New Horizons Geometry Visualizer) include:

* Integration with NAIF/SPICE, allowing for accurate positions and observing geometries for planets, satellites, and spacecraft
* Integration with HD and Tycho-2 star catalogs, including access to catalog information such as positions, magnitudes, and stellar types
* Light-time corrections for all computations
* FOVs of all New Horizons remote sensing instruments
* Wireframe images showing position grids and surface lighting
* Albedo and surface composition maps
* Display of Jovian aurora and satelite flux footprints
* Lookup of spacecraft orientation and pointing from SPICE C-Kernels
* Output of all data in graphical and table format
* Flexible input and output coordinates, including both J2000 celestial and ecliptic systems
* Cartesian or spherical projection of sky coordinates.
* Simple web interface
* Observations for a single time or a range of times
* Rapid generation of tables of geometric parameters (distance, phase angle, etc.) over a time interval

It can be thought of along the same lines as Dave Seal's DIGIT or Mark Showalter's Jupiter Viewer, although it has advantages over both (e.g., full access to star catalogs; NH FOV's; web-based; ecliptic coordinates; simple one-page interface). Although it was written for NH, it's really a much more general tool than that. Kernels are currently included for Rosetta, Messenger and Cassini, in addition to NH.

It's used by the NH Science Team for planning future observations, and analyzing previous observations. This is essentially an internal tool that is being released externally on a trial basis, for use in planning potential NH observations. Please let me know of any significant problems.

Extensive on-line documentation, examples, and screenshots are available at http://soc.boulder.swri.edu/nhgv/gv_info.php .

Have fun!

Henry Throop
Southwest Research Institute
Boulder, CO
throop at boulder.swri.edu

[illexsquid]

I hope I'm not to late to be useful, but I noticed that following Nix backward in time from the date of the encounter, it drew closer and closer to Hydra. Following that all the way back to June 18, 2015 led to a close encounter, and at about 13:40 we get an interesting syzygy of all four bodies:

link

Not overly spectacular, but it does have the advantage of being nearly a month before the encounter and so hopefully during a, er, less busy time.

Actually, I really just wanted the opportunity to use the word syzygy.

[helvick]

Excellent first post. Welcome aboard.

[illexsquid]

Excellent first post. Welcome aboard.

Long time, first time.

[lyford]

looks kewl, and thanks for turning me on to the word "syzygy"

[Juramike]

"syzygy"

Which is perhaps one of the best words ever for six-letter-dups-allowed jotto.
(The taste of defeat still rings metallic in my mouth.)

[john_s]

... and at about 13:40 we get an interesting syzygy of all four bodies:

Cool! We might give that one a shot.

Thanks,
John.

[tfisher]

Cool! We might give that one a shot.

:^) For outreach purposes just being able to have "Syzygy" as the headline word may be enough to pick up a little extra distribution. It really is a cool word!

[nprev]

Gotta be careful, though. Last time I said the word "syzygy" to someone, the response I got was "gesundheit"....

[nprev]

John, has the team made any Kodak shot selections yet? (I'm rooting for the syzygy!)

[john_s]

Nothing definite yet. We are having a "feasibility review" next week where we see whether we can meet all our prime science goals given available resources, so we have a draft timeline which does not yet include specifically "Kodak" images (though of course every image we take will be awesomely beautiful :-) ). We'll add the "Kodak" images, or tweak existing images to meet "Kodak" goals, once we see what resources are left. Observations a long time from closest approach, like the syzygy one, are of course easier to add, so that one has a relatively good chance for reasons in addition to its cool name.

[nprev]

Sorry for the resurrection here, but this very thread was mentioned prominently in an excellent NH article by Alan in the June 2010 issue of Sky & Telescope. Dr. Stern also referred to some of our members as "advanced amateur planetary scientists"-- high praise indeed!

[illexsquid]

When I read that article on the bus I so wanted to turn to the strangers next me and brag, "I posted to that thread!!!!" But I'm sure I was a lot more excited than they would be.

[machi]

As well sorry for resurrection of this thread but as I cannot found here or in New Horizons main thread results of the selection process of kodak moments for Pluto/Charon system,
I found one which is probably selected as observation "P_MVIC_LORRI_CA".
It's this one.
Evidently Charon will no be entire in MVIC frame but I think that it will be fantastic image.
Drawback is that MVIC will be working only in panchromatic mode (according to this article) so image will be only BW.

[nprev]

\o/.…

[john_s]

Bear in mind that these big scans take time to execute, and Pluto and Charon are moving relative to each other during the scan. Depending on exactly where Pluto is during the sequence (its position is somewhat uncertain, and the scan design takes that into account), Charon is quite likely to be hidden behind Pluto during the observation. So I think it's most likely (but not certain) that we'll miss that cool view of Charon peeking out from behind Pluto. That's a shame, but we're collecting our prime science data at this time, and can't afford to compromise the designs for scenic purposes.

Regarding the rest of the "Kodak" observations that were requested, we've accommodated as many as possible, though the bulls-eye geometry of the system on approach and departure, and the intensity of activities near closest approach, mean that we don't have the same opportunities to observe transits and conjunctions as we did at Jupiter. Still, I don't think anyone will be disappointed by the views we'll get!

John