Rare Occultation of 5th-mag. Stars during Saturday Evening's (Mar. 3rd) Total Lunar Eclipse - Updated 2007 July 14, 1:45 UT
The grazing occultation of 59 Leonis was successfully observed from 4 sites along Gargatha Landing Rd. east of Parksley, near the center of the Virginia part of the Delmarva Peninsula
An occultation by the highest mountain on the profile was also recorded by members of the Richmond Astronomical Society from a church parking lot south of Ashland, VA
A grazing occultation of 5.9-mag. 56 Leonis was also observed during the total lunar eclipse, from Stockholm, Sweden and from Crimea
1. Preliminary report of observations of the 59 Leonis graze from the Delmarva Peninsula, expedition from the Washington, DC region. 2. Report of the 59 Leonis graze observed from near Ashland, VA by members of the Richmond Astronomical Society. 3. "Unpredicted" graze of 56 Leonis observed from Stockholm, Sweden 4. Observations and images of the 56 Leonis graze from Crimea _________________________________ 1. Nine people in four families, two from Greenbelt, MD (Dunhams and Warrens); one from Washington, DC (Hancocks); and one from New Freedom, PA (Bates; Harry brought his son as well) observed the grazing occultation of 59 Leonis from four sites along Gargatha Landing Rd. east of Parksley, VA. At least 4 D's and 4 R's were recorded at my station, the southernmost of the four sites. More information about this effort, with eventually a file of my video, will be posted here later. The Moon was quite bright with the red- sensitive cameras; because of that, video taping the totally eclipsed Moon is not as effective for finding meteor impact flashes as video taping the dark side of a crescent Moon. Video segments (.avi files) showing the events at my site using an 8-inch SCT and PC164C camera are given below. Although XXX's show that the Kiwi OSD time synchronization was not good, comparison with a WWVB-controlled self-setting clock showed that the times were all right to at least a second. Rather than trying to view these large files directly from the Web, I suggest instead downloading them and viewing them offline. Segment 1, 160 megabytes Segment 2, 108 megabytes Segment 3, 60 megabytes Segment 4, 118 megabytes Maps showing where we observed the 59 Leonis graze, the predicted lunar profile, total lunar occultation charts and predictions for dozens of cities in northeastern North America, and much other pre-event information, and a world map and table of other grazes during the March 3/4 total lunar eclipse, is here. _________________________________ 2. John R., ras_president@yahoo.com, president of the Richmond Astronomical Society, reports: From Ashland, VA we had a nice view of the eclipse and videotaped the occultation. The disspearance was single and brief, consensus was we were a little too far north. The skies were clear except for a thick band to the north that completetly covered Polaris and Ursa Major by the end of the eclipse. Some members of the church visited and were treated to Saturn and Moon in the telescope as well as the occultation on the video screen. The seeing was horrible, the worst Ive ever seen. Saturn, Venus, and the moon appeared as if beneath a stream of tubulent water. This effect was seen in both 80mm and 250mm telescopes at various magnifications. - [I added: Randy Tatum in your group mentioned that the occultation lasted 35 sec. That means that you were too far south rather than too far north, since you had an occultation only by the highest mountain on the profile of this southern-limit graze; our events near Gargatha took place over a period of at least 3 minutes. Although not as interesting, your observation is valuable since it covered a part of the profile that we didn't cover.] Soon after sunset the shadow of the earth was visible in the east. The moon was spotted with 80mm binocs. It was very dark and invisible to the eye just above the distant pines. Once the moon was located 59 Leo was easily seen in finderscopes. The first camera was installed and focused on Saturn. With only 10 minutes remaining we were unable to see the moon or 59 Leo on the TV. We then hurriedly installed my new PC164c camera and focused again on Saturn. This time the dark face of the moon and 59 Leo were easily seen. Im excited about this since Im new to both occultations and astro-video gear. Im impressed with this little camera. It does have one "hot pixel" After the recording was finished we watched the moon's western limb brighten as it rose higher. The reddish moon and 59 Leo were a pretty pair. The clouds continued to move south. I dont think anyone north of Fredericksburg saw any clear sky. Telescopes present for visual observation: 80mm homemade refractor 80mm Stellarvue Nighthawk 1 10" Meade LX200GPS 10" Homemade Dob 80mm Antares finderscope Recording scope and equipment Meade 7" lX200 Supercircuits PC134C camera (was backup camera) Grundig G5 radio Phillips 12v Portable tv/vcr Grundig S350 radio (backup) Kendrick 12v power supply for vcr various cables and backup battery packs _________________________________ 3. untimed grazing occult. obs. - Stockholm, Sweden during lunar eclipse, Robert Corkery, robert.corkery@anu.edu.au Dear David, I obtained your email from http://iota.jhuapl.edu/. I was lucky enough to point my 2 1/4" refractor at the moon during the last night's lunar eclipse, and then see (at the point near 2nd contact) that a grazing occulation was underway. I observed at least 2 disappearances and reappearances, but have no timing information, unfortunately. Is the observation worth documenting? My exact latitude and longitude (by handheld GPS) are available if you would like to have that info. It is unfortunate I have not been observationally active enough to know about the grazer before hand. Is there an alert list for upcoming events - for example where observers input their lat and long and are automatically emailed? I presume the star (from the available table) was 56 VY Leonis. regards Robert _________________________________ 4. Observations of the 56 Leonis graze from Crimea, by Oleg Ugolnikov, dawnsearcher@mail.ru Dear Collegues, Below are our images showing the double occultation of 56 Leo during the lunar eclipse. The observational device was 1:3.5 camera (F=250 mm) with CCD Sony DSI Pro, narrow spectral band 936 nm, the oservations were made by the program of Aerosol and Water Vapour atmospheric investigations during the lunar eclipses. The GPS coordinates of the observation point: Longitude: 34d 00' 57.3''E, Latitude: +44d 43' 47.4'', Altitude: 592m, situated in Nauchnyi, Crimea, Ukraine. Observers: Igor A. Maslov and Oleg S. Ugolnikov, Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. List of frames, times and star 56 Leo Positions: Frame UT, March, 3d Star Moon23-21.jpg 23.30.04 Occulted Moon23-22.jpg 23.30.09 Appeared Moon23-23.jpg 23.30.13 Appeared Moon23-24.jpg 23.30.18 Appeared Moon23-25.jpg 23.30.22 Appeared Moon23-26.jpg 23.30.26 Appeared Moon23-27.jpg 23.30.29 Appeared Moon23-28.jpg 23.30.33 Occulted ! Moon23-29.jpg 23.30.36 Appeared Moon23-30.jpg 23.30.40 Appeared With the best regards, Oleg Ugolnikov _________________________________ David Dunham, 2007 July 14, 1:45 UT Phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell 301-526-5590 e-mail david.dunham@jhuapl.edu home e-mail: dunham@starpower.net .