Hi Bernd,
The .tdf file for this is supplied at
http://www.projectpluto.com/extras.htm#neocp
When I tried it out, I realized that the format of the Horizons
ephemerides had changed (to be precise, the default output had
changed: alt/az and several other fields are now missing). I've
revised 'neocp.tdf' accordingly.
Also, be aware that your file has to be saved as 'horizons.txt'.
If things still don't work, check to be sure that the format of
the Horizons data looks like this (hope word-wrap doesn't mangle this! )
2009-Jan-11 00:00 m 05 51 09.71 +33 58 10.7 n.a. n.a. .014429825709438 -6.3957965 155.1609 /T 24.4900
2009-Jan-12 00:00 m 05 50 38.10 +34 09 20.0 n.a. n.a. .010685033335881 -6.3945768 154.0700 /T 25.6599
2009-Jan-13 00:00 m 05 49 37.76 +34 31 55.0 n.a. n.a. .006935327617218 -6.4061124 152.8154 /T 27.0007
2009-Jan-14 00:00 m 05 46 15.81 +35 46 57.9 n.a. n.a. .003166758157565 -6.4629135 150.7963 /T 29.1134
2009-Jan-15 00:00 m 16 15 52.98 -62 54 54.6 n.a. n.a. .000828994034193 6.7073835 54.6820 /L 125.2798
For rough magnitudes, the ephemeris at
http://home.gwi.net/~pluto/mpecs/next.htm
should give you some idea as to what to expect (partial output below
shows it's still bright for the next few hours, then gets rapidly faint
as it goes near the sun.)
-- Bill
Date (UT) HH delta elong mag
---- -- -- -- ------ ----- ---
2009 01 14 17 71010 138.4 13.6
2009 01 14 18 45935 130.1 12.9
2009 01 14 19 22163 101.7 12.1
2009 01 14 20 20493 20.9 19.9
2009 01 14 21 43799 40.4 17.7
2009 01 14 22 68867 49.2 17.7
2009 01 14 23 93791 53.5 17.9
2009 01 15 00 118485 56.0 18.2
2009 01 15 01 142985 57.7 18.5
2009 01 15 02 167331 58.9 18.7
2009 01 15 03 191553 59.8 18.9
2009 01 15 04 215676 60.5 19.2
2009 01 15 05 239716 61.0 19.3
2009 01 15 06 263686 61.5 19.5
2009 01 15 07 287598 61.9 19.7
2009 01 15 08 311458 62.2 19.8
2009 01 15 09 335275 62.5 20.0
2009 01 15 10 359053 62.8 20.1
2009 01 15 11 382797 63.0 20.2
2009 01 15 12 406510 63.2 20.3
2009 01 15 13 430196 63.4 20.4
2009 01 15 14 453858 63.6 20.5
2009 01 15 15 477497 63.7 20.6
2009 01 15 16 501115 63.9 20.7
2009 01 15 17 524715 64.0 20.8
2009 01 15 18 548298 64.1 20.9
2009 01 15 19 571864 64.2 21.0
2009 01 15 20 595417 64.3 21.1
2009 01 15 21 618955 64.4 21.1
2009 01 15 22 642481 64.5 21.2
2009 01 15 23 665995 64.6 21.3
2009 01 16 00 689498 64.7 21.4
2009 01 16 01 712990 64.8 21.4
2009 01 16 02 736473 64.9 21.5
2009 01 16 03 759946 64.9 21.6