Rare Occultation of 5th-mag. Star during Saturday Evening's (Mar. 3rd) Total Lunar Eclipse - Updated 2007 Mar. 2, 9pm EST
IMPORTANT! THIS WEB SITE WILL BE SHUT DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE FROM 7 AM TO 7 PM TOMORROW (THAT IS, DURING THE 12 HOURS BEFORE THE ECLIPSE); YOU SHOULD INSTEAD USE THE LINK TO THIS INFORMATION THAT IS NOW ON THE MAIN IOTA WEB SITE, SEE BELOW FOR THE LINK
A Moon View showing the path of the star behind the Moon for major North American cities, and predictions for dozens of cities, can be found here
The latest weather forecast shows clear sky across southern Virginia, with probably a clear view of the graze from the Delmarva Peninsula and possibly also from north of Richmond
An expedition from the Washington, DC area is planned to observe the graze from sites along Gargatha Landing Rd. east of Parksley, VA, on the Delmarva Peninsula
Maps and profiles for the 59 Leonis graze are now here; an expedition is also planned to near Ashland, n. of Richmond, VA
Maps of grazing occultations of fainter stars visible with telescopes are also here
As noted above, you should go to the copy of this Web page that is now installed here on the main IOTA Web site. Besides this site being shut down from 7 am to 7 pm March 3, I also will not be able to update it after this posting, while I can send Rob Robinson updated information tomorrow morning before I leave home that he can post on the link just given. __________________________________________ During the total lunar eclipse early Saturday evening, March 3rd, anyone with a good pair of binoculars and clear skies who lives in the northeastern USA or eastern Canada will be able to also see the eclipse (called "occultation" from the Latin "occultare", to hide) of a star, 59 Leonis, by the totally eclipsed Moon, provided that the sky is clear and that they have an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon. 59 Leonis is a 5th-"magnitude" star, which would be barely visible to the naked eye in a clear, dark sky at high altitude above the horizon. But in order to see the star next to the eclipsed Moon, you will need at least a small pair of binoculars, especially since the star will be only a short distance above the horizon when it will be occulted by the Moon. The predicted local times of the occultation for ten major cities in northeastern North America are given here. Besides the times of disappearance and reappearance, the altitudes of the Sun and of the Moon above the horizon are given, as well as the azimuth of the Moon measured from north (azimuth 90 is due east; 0 would be due north). There is also a "Universal Time" (Greenwich Mean Time) version of this list that gives additional lunar details, and a much longer list, including the Universal Time data for many dozens of cities and a world region of visibility map, is on the Web site of the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA). For all observers, 59 Leonis will disappear near the bottom of the Moon as they see it in the sky rising low in the east. The reappearance will occur on the upper right side of the Moon. Since the Moon has no atmosphere, these events will appear very abrupt, instantaneous to visual observers. A view of the Moon in a Power Point file here shows the paths of the star relative to the Moon's disk for the major cities. The Moon figure shows the outline of the dark "maria" (large frozen lava lakes, the markings of the "man in the moon") and many craters, most of which will not be visible with binoculars but can be seen with a small telescope. The Power Point file also has an unlabelled version of the Moon view, and the latest (36h prognosis) "Astro Meteo" cloud forecast map that show that it should be clear, possible to see the eclipse, from southern Virginia, the northwestern Carolinas, and parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, but unfortunately quite cloudy in other areas (of course, the forecast might change; there will be updates every 12 hours). The temperatures along the graze path in Virginia are expected to be around 40 deg. F. and it is expected to be quite dry; winds are expected to be moderate, with strong gusts, near Parksley and light, with moderate gusts, north of Richmond. The occultation will be visible from throughout eastern Canada, and from the northeastern USA north of central Virginia. The southern limit of the region of visibility of the occultation crosses central Virginia, passing just south of Ashland a few miles north of Richmond, and over the town of Parksley on the Delmarva Peninsula; a map showing the path across Virginia is here. Within a 1.2-mile-wide zone near the southern limit line, observers will see the star appear to move along a line tangent to the Moon's disk (the Moon is the one actually moving, not the star), and for a few minutes around the time of closest approach, they can see a "grazing occultation" with the star disappearing and reappearing several times among mountains and craters along the southern edge of the Moon. The path extends west of Virginia, but the star will be too low in a brightly-lit twilight sky to see from there. In Virginia, multiple events during the grazing occultation might be seen from 6:46 to 6:52 pm EST. The Moon will be 10 deg. above the eastern horizon at Parksley and will be 8 deg. high at Ashland. You can zoom in on the graze path to see it in great detail using Brad Timerson's interactive Google maps Web site. Go to just under the 2nd map from the top of that page and click on "ZC 1600" to get the Google map with path overlay for the graze (be careful; he also has at the bottom of the page another graze of this same star that will occur on March 31 in the western USA; that will not be an easy event because the Moon will be highly gibbous, 95% sunlit). For the offsets, enter 2.0 and -4.0 in the boxes. We are planning an expedition from the Washington, DC area to observe the grazing occultation east of Parksley, near the center of the Virginia portion of the Delmarva Peninsula. We plan to meet at 5:30 pm EST at the intersection of Gargatha Landing Rd. and Metompkin Rd. east of Parksley, as shown on slides 4 and 7 of the Power Point file below. Some maps generated from Brad Timerson's Web site (link to it is at the top of this paragraph) are listed below, as well as the predicted lunar profile. The graze multiple events zone is shown between the northern gray line (+2.0 km) and the green line (s. limit) on the maps. One high mountain will occult the star at least to the southern gray line (-4.0 km). Please let me know if you might be interested in joining our expedtion; my contact information is at the bottom of this page. An expedition by the Richmond Astronomical Society (RAS) is planned south of Ashland, VA, meeting at the Lebanon Methodist Church at Peaks Rd. and Stumpy Rd.; they can be contacted by e-mail at ras_president@yahoo.com . Path across Virginia Path north of Richmond, VA Path over the Delmarva Peninsula Arial views of path west of Parkley, VA (too many trees) Satellite views of path east of Parkley, VA (open areas give good views) Topographic map showing area of the meeting place and access from US 13 Topographic map, s. part of multiple events zone along VA 680 Predicted lunar profile, Delmarva in color Predicted lunar profile, Delmarva in black & white Predicted lunar profile, Ashland, VA in black & white All of the above are gathered into a Power Point file with the meeting intersection e. of Parksley labelled on slides 4 and 7 here. The last page of the Power Point file has Astro Meteo's 36h prognosis cloud cover chart for the eastern USA. Other Astro Meteo 36h prognosis maps are below. eastern Canada cloud cover transparency surface winds surface temperature relative humidity _______________________________________________ Other Occultations during the Lunar Eclipse A telescope will be needed to see these other occultations, since the stars are all much fainter than 59 Leonis. Some predictions of total lunar occultations for the Washington, DC area are below. The columns are explained near the bottom of my Mid- Atlantic occultations and expeditions page. DATE Day EST Ph Star Mag % alt CA Sp. Notes Mar 3 Sat 18:37 D 59 Leonis 5.0 0E 7 36U A5 ZC1600;Sun-8;Az88;VAgrz Mar 3 Sat 18:51 R X120071 10.1 0E 10 58U Sun-10; close double Mar 3 Sat 19:02 R 59 Leonis 5.0 1E 11 35U A5 ZC1600; Az. 91;VA graze Mar 3 Sat 19:24 R X016556 10.6 31E 16 55U K0 partial phase of Mar 3 Sat 19:35 R X120106 10.4 49E 18 59U total lunar eclipse Eberhard Riedel, e-mail, E_Riedel@msn.com, has prepared a map showing the paths of all grazing occultations of stars of magnitude 9.0 and brighter that will occur during the total or partial phases of the lunar eclipse. Table Map _____________________________________ Timing equipment and even telescopes can be loaned for most expeditions that we actually undertake; we are always shortest of observers who can fit these events in their schedule, so we hope that you might be able to. Information on timing occultations is here. Good luck with your observations. David Dunham, 2007 Mar. 2, 9 pm EST 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 .