Also, could you elaborate on why you think that ice caps are so surprising? Pluto has an atmosphere that is in equilibrium with the ices on the surface, so it would redeposit these ices on the surface. More ice would be deposited towards the poles since they are the coldest areas. Also, more ice will sublimate in the warmer areas near the equator. Pluto is very far from the sun, so these differences shouldn't be too pronounced, but as you can see they are not.. It is possible however that there is something else that I'm not considering that would make Pluto unlikely to have ice caps.
Damn it Hubski, I have to go outside! Why are the polar caps surprising? Pluto is like Uranus in that the poles are in its orbital plane. I honestly did not expect polar caps for that reason. If anything, the pole that is lit up by the sun, I anticipated to have less ices on it, and a stronger methane and carbon monoxide signature in the shadowed part of the body. We already expected there to be methane and CO ices on the surface, but in an actual polar cap in the part of the globe in constant sunlight was something neat to see.
Why would you want to go outside, when inside is where all of the cool space stuff is? Pluto does rotate on its side, but its pole isn't (currently) always facing the sun. In fact, the sun is currently mostly heating the equator. Here is its current orientation, and more details.
Very nice! I live in Orlando and am involved with an Astronomy Society here. We have a few 8" telescopes and one 21" (in the Robinson Observatory). I know your pain of trying to cut through light pollution (damn Disney) and humidity and poor conditions. Have fun with all of that!
We sat outside as long as we could stand it. not nearly the crowd we usually pull in but 200+ anyway. I try to hit the public the week around first quarter as I can have the scopes up and looking at the moon for a few hours before sunset and hype Saturn at nightfall (9:30PM up here). We dodged clouds all evening but managed to get Saturn at 200x for most of the evening. That is good enough to see 4-5 moons and the Cassini division. And there was a ton of Pluto talk. Next outreach I have to bring my globes to explain how big Pluto, the moon and the earth are.