A powerful tool for the study of known KBOs is to record stellar occultations with telescopes positionned on the KBO shadow way. The shadow path on the Earth must be computed by very precise astrometric predictions. These observations allow us to -monitor Pluto’s and Triton’s atmospheric seasonal variations over years, -measure sizes of several KBOs at kilometric accuracy, -pin down density determinations, -discover other KBOs with atmosphere.
For this, we have built several kits with a fast and performant portable cameras, a PC, some optics and a GPS for coordinate multi-sites observations. A project is to duplicate these cameras at low cost, to have them distributed in various institutes world-wide.
These observations are coordinated by professeur Bruno Sicardy
The teams involved in these observation campaigns are composed of numerous professionnal and amator astronomers.
