Mid-Atlantic Occultations Observed during the past two months - Updated 2008 March 28, 3:30 pm EDT
Only Dunham recorded the graze of SAO 99036 at Hahnstown, PA during the lunar eclipse on Feb. 20/21
George Varros obtained the first recording of a lunar meteor impact flash during a total lunar eclipse on Feb. 20/21 from Mt. Airy, MD
Several asteroidal occultations were observed in the Mid-Atlantic region in February and March
I video recorded 4 events (2 disappearances and 2 reappearances) during the grazing occultation of 8.8-mag. SAO 99036 along the relatively dark northern edge of the Moon at Hahnstown, Pennsylvania, about 15 miles northeast of Lancaster, just after the end of totality, with only 1% of the Moon's disk out of the umbra. A couple of other observers in the region saw the total occultation of the star, but as far as I know, nobody else accurately timed either the graze or the total occultation in the Mid-Atlantic area. ____________ George Varros video recorded a large section of the Moon from its advancing edge to its center during the eclipse. His recording shows a faint lunar meteor impact flash on 3 successive frames; you can see details on his Web site. So far, the event is not confirmed (more observers should have video recorded the eclipse with 8-inch or larger telescopes; I did that for 45 minutes, but I was late in my drive to Penn. and didn't start recording until 10 min. after Varros' event, and I was also recording a different part of the Moon). However, it looks like many other confirmed lunar impact flashes, and occurring on 3 frames rules out cosmic ray flashes, which usually occur on only one frame, and rarely two. Even geosynchronous satellites were deep in the Earth's shadow in the direction to the moon, and satellite sunglints, when they do occur, usually last for a dozen or more frames. So there is little doubt that this is really the first known lunar meteor impact flash recorded during a total lunar eclipse. Interestingly, I video recorded the first confirmed lunar meteor impact flashes during the lunar Leonid storm on 1999 November 18 from George Varros' back yard (I went there to have a darker site than my home in Greenbelt, MD, 40 miles away, to try to observe the atmospheric Leonids that occurred later that morning). So his location claims two lunar meteor impact "firsts". ____________ Past Asteroidal Occultations - Observations 2008 Planet or dur. Ap. Date Day EST Star mag. Asteroid dmag s " Location Feb 8 Fri 21:29 2UC34419143 11.9 Goldschmidt 3.5 8 6 wNY,PA,cMD,eVA Feb 8 Fri 23:51 2UC35719150 13.0 Aspasia 0.3 30 11 NJ,nMD,PA,nOH Feb 9 Sat 20:54 2UC41013641 13.1 Dynamene 0.4 17 11 seVA,NC,nGA,sTX Feb 10 Sun 4:44 2UC37355074 11.4 Cohnia 2.9 6 7 s&wNC,eTN,nOR Feb 11 Mon 18:47 PPM 120468 10.4 Eliane 5.8 3 5 NC,VA,MD,PA,NY Feb 28 Thu 21:55 2UC31332110 13.5 Amalia 0.9 4 12 sMD,nVA,nWV,OH *** Dates and times above are EST, those below are EDT *** Mar 12 Wed 2:15 TYC55271139 11.2 Delia 3.3 5 7 DE,MD,swPA,nOH Mar 23 Sun 21:06 2UC36082861 12.2 Aspasia 0.9 12 9 NJ,MD,PA,DC,WV Mar 25 Tue 0:39 2UC40006780 13.4 Dejopeja 1.0 7 12 nOH,w&sMD,nVA Feb. 8: Bart Huxtable saw an occultation by Goldschmidt from his home at Gambrills, MD, with the star near the limit of his vision with an 8-inch SCT, but it occurred at the right time. This implies a large but possible shift of the path to the east; Curt Roelle at Marston recorded and had no occultation. Andrew Scheck video recorded a 4-second occultation from his home in n.w. Laurel, MD. I set up too late for Goldschmidt (if I had been on time, I would have duplicated Scheck's chord), but ran two stations for the Aspasia occultation from locations on the north and south sides of Columbia, MD; I have not had time to digitize and analyze the tapes to see if the low-mag. drop occultation really occurred there or not. Roelle wasn't able to observe it due to battery failure. Feb. 9/10: It was clear across most of the s.e. USA for these events. Dynamene: Roger Venable video recorded the faint Dynamene occultation from two stations in western North Carolina, giving a result similar to that obtained during a better-observed occultation in the n.e. USA and w. Europe on 2006 Oct. 9. Two observers who tried the event in Texas had equipment failures. Cohnia: A brighter event, but with worse prediction uncertainty; Roger Venable observed from two stations, and Dan Caton observed from one, all in N.Car. across the path, but no occultation occurred at any of the three stations, indicating a larger than usual path error. Varuna: I recorded in cold conditions but haven't reviewed my tape. Several others from Venezuela to Ontario observed and had no occultation. Feb. 11: Steve Conard and I successfully video recorded the occultation by Eliane just before clouds moved in Monday evening, from our locations at Gamber and Triadelphia Reservoir, respectively; the actual path was well east of its predicted location, thus passing over the Washington - Baltimore region. Feb. 28: Steve Conard video recorded the Amalia field from home in Gamber, MD, but more processing of his record is needed to see if the faint target star was recorded well enough to see if an occultation occurred. March 12: Recordings were obtained in Maryland by S. Conard at Gamber, A. Scheck in n. Laurel, J. Menke at Barnesville, and D. Dunham at Greenbelt (remote) and Price. There was no full occultation at any of the stations, indicating that the path probably shifted at least half a path-width to the north, but Menke notes a 1/3rd brightness dip in his drift-scan record for 3 seconds at the right time. Analysis of Dunham and Scheck's videos is in progress; a 1.5-gigabyte .avi file of Scheck's recording is here. There's a small chance that the star is a close double with an occultation of the fainter component occurring at the southern stations; analysis shows that no event occurred at Gamber. March 23: I recorded a 10.3s occultation with a remote station at Yocumtown, PA, about 60 km north of the predicted center. I did not get set up in time for a second station attempt near Parkton, MD. No other observations are known of this early evening Easter Sunday event. March 25: Dunham and Menke recorded the target star with no occultation occurring at our locations a little north of the predicted path, so the actual event may have been close to the prediction over northern Virginia. Results of all of these will be posted on the North American asteroidal occultation results Web page. ___________________________________________________ David Dunham, 2008 March 28, 3:30 pm EDT Phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell 301-526-5590 office e-mail david.dunham@jhuapl.edu with Blackberry for mobile use After Feb. 29, my office e-mail address will be david.dunham@kinetx.com home e-mail: dunham@starpower.net .