Mid-Atlantic Occultations to mid June - Updated 2008 April 24 EDT
The Crescent Moon will pass through the Preasepe Cluster late Sat. evening, May 10 (Astronomy Day)
Some Bright Pleiades Stars will reappear on the dark side of an 11% sunlit Moon low in the sky Mon. morning, June 30
Asteroidal Occultations 2008 EDT/ Planet or dur. Ap. Date Day EST Star mag. Asteroid dmag s " Location Apr 27 Sun 0:42 2UC33230431 13.2 2002 GZ32 6.5 9 11 TNO N.America? Apr 27 Sun 22:05 SAO 98204 7.2 Yano 11.1 1 1 sWV,s&cVA,eNC Apr 29 Tue 5:07 SAO 139833 9.6 2002 FE7 8.8 0.4 4 MD,DC,VA,PA? Apr 29 Tue 21:39 TYC18640730 10.4 Bohemia 1.6 2 5 sNY,nePA,nNJ May 1 Thu 2:56 SAO 188465 8.5 1992 WS3 9.7 1 2 OH,MD,PA May 2 Fri 1:48 2UC18746728 11.9 Feodosia 1.7 8 9 cen. NC - low May 3 Sat 22:35 TYC67171249 10.9 1974 FV1 5.9 5 6 NJ,PA,MD?,nVA? May 4 Sun 2:48 SAO 82381 9.7 Wallonia 5.5 1 4 wNY, nwPA, OH May 5 Mon 3:24 SAO 188391 9.6 Hotellasillia 8.5 2 4 WV,VA,MD,PA May 6 Tue 0:13 2UC31689761 12.6 Tombecka 1.6 6 9 NJ,sePA,MD,nVA May 8 Thu 0:49 SAO 120375 7.9 1999 CB128 8.9 1 2 DE,MD,VA,DC,WV May 8 Thu 4:40 SD-17d 5862 9.9 2000 RH73 9.3 0.6 4 WV,VA,MD,DE,NJ May 12 Mon 23:07 2UC37387291 12.9 Varsavia 2.9 4 10 NJ,PA,OH;nMD? May 15 Thu 1:47 PPM 732830 10.2 Nei Monggo 1.5 2 4 PA,OH;MD,nVA? May 19 Mon 22:09 TYC61230585 11.3 Libya 3.8 8 8 e&nNC,swVA May 20 Tue 23:58 SAO 99965 9.3 Hamatonbetsu 6.4 3 2 OH,wVA,wNC,WV? May 21 Wed 4:08 SAO 146688 8.9 Elliot 9.5 1 2 sGA; sSC? May 27 Tue 3:03 2UC22726370 11.8 Rosa 2.7 6 8 NC, Tenn. Jun 7 Sat 3:20 TYC74271593 11.2 Johanna 1.8 13 7 eVA,seMD,DE Jun 18 Wed 3:17 SAO 186418 8.8 Fortuna 1.9 19 3 Fla,sTex,nMex Jun 21 Sat 5:13 SAO 141454 9.4 Robeson 6.3 2 6 KY,sWV,nVA-low Sep 12 Fri 2:32 SAO 93320 6.0 Metis 3.9 51 1 ON,MI,nAZ,sCA *** Dates and times above are EDT, those below are EST *** Nov 16 Sun 4:22 SAO 96841 9.6 Klotilde 4.3 24 4 MD,DC,VA We now have "final" astrometric updates for these events except the TNO ones, and for those after May 24. Stars with designations starting "2UC" are UCAC2 stars; their magnitudes are not as accurate as the other catalogs so they might be half a magnitude or more fainter than the listed magnitude; if near the limit of your telescope, checking the star's some night before the event is recommended. Observers should watch these from convenient home or near-home locations without making a significant mobile effort, except for some of the better events mentioned below, where the chances for an occultation warrant an expedition from the DC region, weather permitting. If you live within the predicted paths for any of the above events, or within the 2-sigma uncertainty limits, please try to observe them from convenient home locations. In addition, you may want to help, or join, a possible expedition from the DC area that may be undertaken, weather permitting, for the events on May 19 & 27; June 7, 18, & 21; Sept. 12; and Nov. 16. Many will probably not be attempted due to forecasts of cloudy weather. I usually give the wider paths with better statistics priority. April 27, Yano: This asteroid, (8906) Yano, is only 10 km in diameter and the path error is much greater than its size. The star is HIP 43672, spectral type A0. April 29, (119929) 2002 FE7: Another tiny asteroid, 5 km. The star is TYC 4979-00305-1, spectral type G5. May 1: (11924) 1992 WS3 is only 4 km across. The star is HIP 52547, spectral type K0. May 4: The star is TYC 1992-01907-1, spectral type F8. May 5: (3705) Hotellasilla is only 11 km across. The star is TYC 6307-01759-1, spectral type G5. May 8, (49582) 1999 CB128, only 10 km across, will occult the star HIP 69723, spectral type A0. May 8, (62065) 2000 RH73, only 5 km across, will occult the star TYC 6314-00172-1, spectral type K0. May 15: The star is TYC 6800-01653-1, spectral type M. May 20: The star is TYC 1442-01630-1, spectral type K0. _______________________________________________ For these asteroidal occultations, see the path maps, detailed finder charts, and other info. at Steve Preston's Web site. Very detailed maps for most of these are on Derek Breit's interactive Web page that links to the very detailed maps and satellite imagery of maps.google.com with overlays of the occultation paths (in the google maps column). Also on Breit's Web site are station lists giving local circumstances, for many observer stations. It gives the predicted time of the event, distance from the updated central line, probability that an occultation will occur there, and altitudes of the star and the Sun. If your station is not in that list, please let me and Derek, breit_ideas@hotmail.com , know so that you can be added to future lists. There is also a column that has a list of stars with declinations similar to that of the target star, with offset times and declination differences, that can be used to pre-point a telescope to where the target star will be at the time of the occultation. There are at least a few bright stars that can be used to pre-point your telescope during the few hours before the event so that you don't have to try to find faint target stars directly. Events not on the above Web sites, generally for the fainter stars, are on Steve Messner's Web site. I recommend installing new software called Occult Watcher, where you input your position and it searches Steve Preston's predition Web site, informing you of all asteroidal occultations in your region during the next 4-5 weeks, giving probabilities and other details. Whenever a path is updated, the software lets you know. It also has provision for you to specify your observing intentions, and these are displayed along with those of other observers to help plan the overall coverage for the event. Hristo Pavlov in Sydney, Australia wrote this program; you can get it here. Much more information about asteroidal occultations in general is here. Please go to that link to get information for your site and help us measure the sizes and shapes of these asteroids. For reporting observations, even if the star is monitored and no occultation is seen, you should use the new report forms that you can get here and click on "Templates for Report Forms". Completed reports should be sent to reports@asteroidoccultation.com . Observations during the past 2 months, including the SAO 99036 grazing occultation and a lunar meteor impact flash recorded during the recent lunar eclipse, and several asteroidal occultations observed in the region, are described here. Brad Timerson has created a comprehensive site about asteroidal occultations, including links to most other known Web sites worldwide with useful information (predictions and observations) about these events, here. He also collects, analyzes, and posts reports of, observations of these events observed in North America. _______________________________ Lunar Grazing Occultations to mid June 2008 (and some later) You can zoom in on some of these paths using Brad Timerson's interactive Google maps Web site. But you need to know the offsets for the graze zone in your area; we can help you determine that. Brad can usually add events not on his Web site by request to him at btimerson@rochester.rr.com . DATE Day EDT Star Mag % alt CA Location, Notes May 8 Thu 22:32 SAO 78579 9.3 18+ 17 14N Chantilly&DaleC,VA;LaPlata,MD May 9 Fri 22:43 SAO 79618 7.7 27+ 24 14N Allentown, PA; Fostertown, NJ May 9 Fri 23:20 S Gem 8.0 28+ 19 14N *Roanoke, VA; Kinston, NC May 10 Sat 21:43 SAO 97973 7.8 38+ 46 17N *Garner and Cary, NC May 10 Sat 23:12 ZC 1297 6.8 38+ 28 14N Natural Bridge,VA, Witaker,NC May 12 Mon 21:05 SAO 118218 7.8 59+ 56 18N Columbia & Odenton,MD; Sun-10 May 13 Tue 1:39 SAO 118297 8.7 61+ 11 9N *s. Erie& Lancaster, PA May 14 Wed 20:46 ZC 1711 7.9 78+ 47 20N Sykesville, Annapolis, MD May 29 Thu 4:57 SAO 146779 8.8 37- 31 13N Grnsb,NC;Richmnd,VA;LexPrk,MD Jun 5 Thu 21:35 ZC 1097 6.9 7+ 13 15N Remington & Fredericksburg,VA Jun 5 Thu 22:26 SAO 79238 7.3 8+ 7 14N *s. of Morgantown, WV Jun 6 Fri 21:06 SAO 80039 8.4 14+ 26 14N *Somerville &NewBrunswick, NJ Oct 6 Mon 21:35 phi Sgr 3.2 46+ 14 16S Rockland & Brunswick, VA Oct 22 Wed 6:01 ZC 1331 6.3 40- 56 10S Centreville & Springfield, VA Some grazes will not be attempted if expeditions are undertaken for asteroidal occultations within 36 hours of the graze. * in the Notes column means that no DC-area expedition is planned. We had many good grazing occultations in the region during early April, but the weather remained bad most of the time and as can be seen here, most of them were hosed.. I managed to vidoe record a single D & R through thickening cirrus during the 136 Tauri graze on April 10 in s. NJ about 6 miles s.e. of the Delaware Memorial Bridge; the IR satellite image showed that it was clear just a few miles farther s.e., towards Millville, NJ. May 10: During Praesepe passage. _______________________________________________ Total Lunar Occultations The better total lunar occultations through mid June 2008 visible from throughout the Washington-Baltimore greater metropolitan area are listed below. Some can be accurately timed by aiming a camcorder into a low-power eyepiece of your telescope and recording WWV with the audio. DATE Day EDT Ph Star Mag % alt CA Sp. Notes Apr 25 Fri 4:16 R SAO 187318 7.7 71- 21 58N A3 Apr 25 Fri 5:40 R SAO 187363 7.2 71- 24 88N K0 Sun alt. -7 deg. Apr 26 Sat 4:10 R ZC 2879 6.7 62- 19 90N A3 Apr 28 Mon 3:09 R iota Cap 4.3 42- 2 77N G8 Azimuth 114 deg. May 1 Thu 5:22 R ZC 3385 6.7 22- 18 52N F8 Sun alt. -9 deg. May 6 Tue 21:31 D X05643 8.5 4+ 5 2S F8 Az 299; 20" to chi Tau May 6 Tue 21:32 D chi Tauri 5.4 4+ 5 -1S B9 ZC 647; Azimuth 299 May 7 Wed 22:09 D ZC 833 7.1 10+ 10 78S B5 Az 296 May 9 Fri 22:33 D SAO 79618 7.7 28+ 26 37N F5 Graze in PA & NJ May 9 Fri 22:35 D SAO 79616 8.2 28+ 26 42S A0 May 9 Fri 23:07 D SAO 79621 7.4 28+ 20 2S K0 May 9 Fri 23:48 D SAO 79663 7.5 28+ 13 87N K0 Azimuth 289 deg. May 10 Sat 20:13 D 35 Cancri 6.6 37+ 60 54S G0 ZC 1282; Sun -2 deg. May 10 Sat 21:40 D ZC 1287 6.7 38+ 44 59S A5 rest Praesepe stars May 10 Sat 22:35 D SAO 98009 7.6 38+ 34 67N A7 May 10 Sat 23:07 D SAO 98027 7.8 38+ 28 47N A8 May 10 Sat 23:47 D BY Cancri 7.9 39+ 20 74N A7 SAO 98054 May 12 Mon 21:00 D SAO 118218 7.8 59+ 58 26N F5 cen. MD graze May 12 Mon 21:10 R SAO 118218 7.8 59+ 57 11N F5 May 13 Tue 23:54 D SAO 118693 7.7 70+ 34 71N G5 May 14 Wed 20:41 D ZC 1711 7.9 78+ 47 29N G0 cen. MD graze May 14 Wed 20:52 R ZC 1711 7.9 78+ 48 12N G0 Sun alt. -8 deg. May 21 Wed 1:08 R ZC 2397 6.5 99- 23 50S K1 WA 253; term. 15" away May 27 Tue 5:15 R SAO 164779 7.2 58- 34 82S G5 Sun alt. -6 deg. May 28 Wed 3:19 R SAO 146272 7.7 48- 17 67N G5 May 29 Thu 3:47 R 13 Piscium 6.4 37- 18 83S K1 May 31 Sat 3:47 R SAO 92318 7.9 17- 8 61N G0 Azimuth 81 deg. Jun 1 Sun 3:50 R ZC 317 6.4 9- 2 71S F5 Azimuth 70 deg. Jun 6 Fri 20:51 D ZC 1242 6.9 14+ 30 46S F2 Sun alt. -4 deg. Jun 6 Fri 21:16 D SAO 80051 8.2 14+ 25 84S K0 Sun alt. -8 deg. Jun 9 Mon 0:21 D SAO 118138 7.1 35+ 3 63N M3 Azimuth 280 deg. Jun 10 Tue 21:22 D SAO 138313 7.6 54+ 42 80S F9 Sun alt. -9 deg. Jun 11 Wed 21:30 D ZC 1778 7.0 64+ 40 78N K0 Sun alt. -10 deg. Jun 15 Sun 1:24 D SAO 182861 7.3 89+ 15 41S F2 Azimuth 224 deg. On Mon. morning, June 30, the 11% sunlit waning Moon will pass through the Pleiades, with the reappearance of a few of the bright stars visible on the dark side, but the Moon will be only a few deg. above the east-northeastern horizon then. Mark your calendar; some details will be given in a future update. D following the time denotes a disappearance, while R indicates that the event is a reappearance. When a power (x; actually, zoom factor) is given in the Notes, the event can probably be recorded directly with a camcorder of that power with no telescope needed. The times are for Greenbelt, MD, and will be good to within +/-1 min. for other locations in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan areas unless the cusp angle (CA) is less than 30 deg., in which case, it might be as much as 5 minutes different for other locations across the region. Some stars in Flamsteed's catalog are in the wrong constellation, according to the official IAU constellation boundaries that were established well after Flamsteed's catalog was published. In these cases, Flamsteed's constellation is in parentheses and the actual constellation is given in the notes following a /. Mag is the star's magnitude. % is the percent of the Moon's visible disk that is sunlit, followed by a + indicating that the Moon is waxing and - showing that it is waning. So 0 is new moon, 50+ is first quarter, 100+ or - is full moon, and 50- is last quarter. The Moon is crescent if % is less than 50 and is gibbous if it is more than 50. Cusp Angle is described more fully at the main IOTA Web site - see above. Sp. is the star's spectral type (color), O,B,blue; A,F,white; G,yellow; K,orange; M,N,S,C red. Also in the notes, information about double stars is often given. "Close double" with no other information usually means nearly equal components with a separation less than 0.2". "mg2" or "m2" means the magnitude of the secondary component, followed by its separation in arc seconds ("), and sometimes its PA from the primary. If there is a 3rd component (for a triple star), it might be indicated with "mg3" or "m3". Double is sometime abbreviated "dbl". Sometimes the Watts angle (WA) is given; it is aligned with the Moon's rotation axis and can be used to estimate where a star will reappear relative to lunar features. The selenographic latitude is WA -270. For example, WA 305 - 310 is near Mare Crisium. Many more total occultations will be visible with 5" and larger telescopes than are listed here. If you want to try to observe some of these events, it is better to use predictions computed for your location, such as those given in the IOTA annual predictions that have been distributed to IOTA members, and are available to others upon request. For Pleiades occultations, region of visibility maps and predictions for hundreds of N. American cities for the brightest 7 stars are on this page at IOTA's lunar occultation Web site, while predictions for all of 2008 for stars to mag. 6.0 for 40 of the larger N. American cities can be downloaded in .zip files from here. There are no Pleiades occultations visible from the Mid-Atlantic region from now to early June; we'll have a good passage the morning of June 30. The links just mentioned don't work now, the whole main IOTA Web site is down, the server it was on was shut down. In about a week, the webmaster hopes to rehost the site. ________________________________________________________ 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. Much information about observing occultations of all types is in "Chasing the Shadow: The IOTA Occultation Observer's Manual" available for free download at http://www.poyntsource.com/IOTAmanual/Preview.htm . _____________________________ David Dunham, 2008 April 24, 6 pm EDT Phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell 301-526-5590 office e-mail david.dunham@kinetx.com with Blackberry for mobile use home e-mail: dunham@starpower.net .