[Previous] | [Session 12] | [Next]
J. Berthier (IMCCE), F. Marchis (UC-Berkeley/CfAO)
Several new Adaptive Optics (AO) systems will be open to the community very soon on 10-m diameter telescopes (e.g. VLT, Subaru, Gemini...). Even if the quality of data delivered by such systems is better than the current ones (e.g. ADONIS, PUEO...), they will not allow high spatial resolution observations of Centaurs/TNOs since these are too faint (e.g. typical mv> 20) and so under the analysis limit for the AO correction.
One of the easiest ways to observe these bodies with AO systems is to use an appulse event with a bright star. We have performed a prediction of such events for the years 2001, 2002 and 2003 using the 480 objects in the current ASTORB database with a semi-major axis greater than 20 AU. Their osculating orbital elements have been used to generate their positions using DE403 ephemeris. Using the Tycho-2 catalog, appulses with a star of mv <13 have been determined. Our criterion for an appulse includes a minimal angular separation less than 65 arcsec between the star and the target.
A web page (http://astron.berkeley.edu/~fmarchis/Science/TNOs_Appulse/) containing the results of the calculations in several ASCII files is presented to the community. Around 100 events are observable every month. This page will be updated regularly and we are working on an interactive version with a small search tool to allow observers to retrieve quickly the information needed.
This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation Science and technology Center for Adaptive Optics, managed by the University of California under cooperative agreement No. AST-9876783
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://astron.berkeley.edu/~fmarchis/Science/TNOs_Appulse/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: berthier@bdl.fr