Marking Pluto Time

[krpalmer]

As the New Horizons probe closes in on Pluto, with the closest encounter now less than a month away (although with the target of approach more like one of the Galilean moons than Jupiter or Saturn, the pictures are only just starting to show that small world's distinctive blotches), I've been noticing more "outreach" cropping up. One idea is to calculate the time at your location when the light will be as strong as it is at high noon out there; while I don't have an account on any of the social services it was suggested the pictures be posted to I suppose I can still regret not getting around to signing up to have my name shot out of the solar system, and I went ahead and went outside at 9:04 PM last night to take some pictures. The sky looked more interesting than anything in my neighbourhood, so I focused on it. I did have the feeling I could cope with light levels like that, although certainly the weather felt a lot more clement than it would be out there; this is one case where a particular moment in Robert A. Heinlein's "Have Space Suit--Will Travel" comes to mind.