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Description
The prediction tables of stellar occultations by Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Quaoar, Orcus, Sedna, Varuna, Ixion, 2002TX300 and 2003AZ84 for 2008-2015 were built to support the investigation of the physical properties of large transneptunian objects - keystones in the study of structure, origin and evolution of the Solar System. Our goal was to derive precise, astrometric predictions. With this aim, we constructed astrometric star catalogs in the UCAC2 system covering their sky paths. For that, we have carried out in 2007-2009 an observational program at the ESO2p2/WFI instrument covering the sky path of these 10 large TNOs for the 2008-2015. We made the astrometry of 316 GB of images with the Platform for Reduction of Astronomical Images Automatically (PRAIA). By relatively simple astrometric techniques, we treated the overlapping observations and derived a field distortion pattern for the WFI mosaic of CCDs to within 50 mas precision. The catalog star positions were obtained in the UCAC2 frame with errors of 40mas for stars up to magnitude completeness (about R=19). New stellar proper motions were also determined with 2MASS and the USNO B1.0 catalog positions as first epoch. The catalogs of all TNOs contain in all more than 5.35 million stars with proper motions, covering the sky paths of the objects with 30 arcmin width. The magnitude completeness is about R=19 with a limit about R=21. Ephemeris offsets with about 50mas to 100mas precision were applied for each TNO orbit to improve the predictions. They were obtained during 2007-2010 from a parallel observational campaign carried out with 0.6m to 2.2m size telescopes. The 2718 candidate stars listed in the prediction tables were searched using a proximity radius of 335mas with the geocentric apparent orbit (corrected by ephemeris offsets) of the body considered. This radius is about the apparent radius of a body with Pluto's size (50mas) plus the apparent Earth radius (285mas) as projected in the sky plane at 31AU (about the Pluto-Earth distance for 2008-2015). No threshold in R magnitude was used in the search for candidates, as relatively faint R objects may turn out to be bright infrared stars, perfect targets for the SOFIA observatory and for ground-based instruments well equipped with H, J or K band detectors (H, J and K magnitudes are promptly available in the tables if the star belongs to the 2MASS). Besides, events may be also favored by slow shadow speeds of less than 20km/s. Also, no constraint on a geographic place was applied, as in principle SOFIA observations can be done from any sub-solar point on Earth. Events in daylight at sub-planet point were not excluded either, as they could yet be observable in the dark, right above the horizon, from places near the Earth terminator. We furnish here prediction tables for future and also for past stellar occultations covering the sky paths between 2008-2015. The importance of predictions for occultations still to come is obvious. But the predictions of past occultations are also useful for at least three reasons. First, they can be used by anyone as reference for ongoing fittings of light curves of recent past observed events. Second, they serve to derive ephemeris drifts by comparing expected and observed central instants and C/A values. Finally, they can be used as an external check for the accuracy and precision of our prediction tables. In all, for R=19 stars (catalog magnitude completeness) and 40mas errors in the WFI positions, we may assume a bulk error of about 80mas for C/A, dominated by the ephemeris offsets errors of about 70mas. For about 40AU, this implies a shadow path uncertainty over the Earth of the order of 2300km. If the ephemeris offsets can be well determined to within 30mas precision, then a bulk error of 50mas in C/A can be achieved, leading to a precision of about 1400km for the WFI occultation path predictions. Thus, the probability of actually observing the occultation is not as high as hoped, but not despairingly small, especially if the event occurs above a dense, populated region in terms of astronomers, including amateurs.
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