KBO encounters Options

[xtruel]

Hi,

I’m regular follower of NH and I’m also interested in the 2nd leg of the mission, i.e the 2016+ KBOs encounters. Does anyone know when operations about this leg (starting with searching objects of interest with HST or some other earth-based means, I suppose) are expected to begin ?

[nprev]

John, though this is not a technical commentary, have to say that the user interface is quite effective, and even a rank amateur like me picked up on the methodology rather quickly. Suggestion: Might not be a bad idea to explain in the tutorials why stars are black in the middle (because they are very distant point-sources of light & therefore wash out the exposure in a smaller area than would be expected for a KBO because the latter are much closer; helps people understand why blobs=good.)

Okay, back to searching for one of the next targets!

[john_s]

Suggestion: Might not be a bad idea to explain in the tutorials why stars are black in the middle (because they are very distant point-sources of light & therefore wash out the exposure in a smaller area than would be expected for a KBO because the latter are much closer; helps people understand why blobs=good.)

Thanks for the suggestion- it would be nice to have a bit more technical explanation for those who are interested. However the presence of black blobs isn't due to stars being further away or being "smaller" sources (the KBOs themselves are point sources for all practical purposes, and are as small as the star images). Rather, it's because stars don't move, so each positive image of a star is combined with a negative image of the same star when the subtraction is done- imperfections in the subtraction leave some negative (black) pixels as a result. The KBOs have moved on by the time the negative image is taken, so there's no superimposed negative image- all you get is the unadulterated positive image. Hope that makes sense...

John