The predictions in this section are based on star catalogs produced by the Rio de Janeiro group, with star positions measured against the UCAC2 catalog.

The TNO's offsets (with respect to the Horizons JPL ephemerides) are measured by the same group during the first half of 2008.

NB. Offsets are written in the upper right corner on charts.

Pluto and satellites offsets are given with respect to the DE413 barycentric ephemeris, and are based on a linear extrapolation of the offsets we (Paris group and Dave Herald, Australia) determined using Pluto and Charon occultations between 2005 and 2008. Note that the same offset of -94 mas and +140 mas in r.a. and rec. has been applied to all charts. It corresponds to the offset estimated for epoch June 2009. Once a candidate has been selected, refinements can be made on that given prediction.

Note that unlikely other maps I produced, the magnitudes given in the lower line are R* and K* (and not V* and R*, as usual), so that it is possible to point out very red stars that are unreachable in visible bands, but observable in J, H or K.

NB. a K magnitude close to 50 means that the star is not in the 2mass catalog, usually because it is too faint.

!!Note also that those magnitudes, with a star symbol "*", are normalized to a common shadow velocity of 20 km/sec !!!
I am using for that the following formula:

Independent predictions are given on the following links:

IOTA European Section page
Leslie's Young page
MIT page