New Horizons "stellar" course?

wrote:
On Saturday, January 5, 2019 at 1:03:16 PM UTC-5, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
JBI wrote:
On 1/5/19 1:23 AM, wrote:
On Friday, January 4, 2019 at 8:51:04 AM UTC-5, JBI wrote:
Cannot find this information anywhere, but curious where New Horizons
would be heading in the long term, in other words what star? And also
are there any more visits to other objects planned besides the latest?
Thank you.
It seems to be heading in the general direction of Xi 1,2 Sagittarii,
less than a degree to the east of those stars, perhaps.
Thank you, the information I was looking for.
So you believe blindly everything that you read?

Maybe you have a better estimation of where this spacecraft is headed?

Certainly. But it does not appear to have a name, or a designation
(apparently it is not even in the Hipparcos Catalogue).

If it helps, it is a star belonging to Sgr, color index (B−V) 0.98
(something between spectral class K0V and M0V, so I guess a main sequence
red dwarf), that has the equatorial coordinates (J2000.0-based)
α = 18h59m12.86s and δ = −20°49'35.1" (J2000.0-based; figures from Stellarium).

This is using your assumption, which may be wrong, that the heading of NH
has only insignificantly changed since the Pluto flyby.

Pluto has α = 18h59m16.36s and δ = −20°45'26.9" then (∆ ≈ 0°4'12.88"), while
ξ1 Sgr, which of the two ξ’s is closest on the celestial sphere to Pluto,
has α = 18h57m20.48s and δ = −20°39'23.0" (∆ ≈ 0°27'46.07").

(Hint: It will exit the Kuiper Belt in a few years. And keep going.)

Maybe. That depends on *several* *unknowns*.

--
PointedEars

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