Good Graze over populous East Coast, Wed. early pm, Dec. 7
Details and maps, Florida panhandle to New Brunswick, passing near Augusta, GA; Columbia, SC; central NC; Richmond, VA; Hughesville, MD; Wilmington, DE; Princeton & Cranford, NJ; n. of NYC; Hartford, CT; central Mass.; s.e. NH; and Portland, ME
Graze is of 8.8-mag. SAO 165346 well on dark side of 44% sunlit waxing Moon at 6:46 pm EST near Hughesville, MD
Updated: 2005 Dec. 7
Click here for a broad-view map of the graze path from Florida to New Brunswick; a Word version of it is here. See below for obtaining VERY detailed maps of the path at Charlie Ridgway's interactive Web site using Google maps. The graze will occur at 6:24 pm in Florida, 6:51 pm in n. NJ and n. of NYC, and around 7 pm in s.e. Maine. The graze will last up to 5 minutes; the times are central graze times. The event is a southern-limit graze, so a short total occultation will be visible north of the graze line, with both D and R on the Moon's dark side for almost 100 miles northwest of the line. The graze, with multiple occultations of the star, will be visible within about two miles of the southern limit line. The Moon alt. will be 39 deg. at Hughesville, and high enough along the whole path, higher towards the southwest. In Florida, twilight will interfere. Central graze will be on the dark side of the Moon 18 deg. from the southern cusp; the star will appear to approach the Moon from the dark side. The last Clear Sky Clock forecast for this evening's grazing occultation calls for clear skies from central Virginia (Richmond area) to New Brunswick, except for a band of clouds over much of Connecticut, and some clouds to the northwest possibly threatening northern New Jersey and the southern Hudson River Valley. Thin broken to overcast clouds will cover southern Virginia and North Carolina, with thick clouds over South Carolina, Georgia, and the Florida panhandle. With this forecast, I'll plan to observe the graze from sites south of Hughesville, MD, along MD Route 6 (New Market Road) extending west from Route 5. If you want to join me there, try to arrive by 6:00 pm (leave early enough to get through the rush hour traffic; arrive earlier if you can) and call me on my cell phone at 301-526-5590 when you approach the area. The Occult predictions for the graze path are here. You can see the path superimposed on very detailed maps and satellite imagery on Charlie Ridgway's Web site. For general information about his site, click here, while for the map specifically for this grazing occultation, click here. On this site, you can enter a distance from the line in km in a special "offset" box (just write over the default value of 1000 given there) and it will plot gray lines at that distance north and south of the southern limit line. You can move the map by grabbing it (left-clicking and holding down) and you can zoom in or out by left-clicking on the scale in the upper left part of the map (+ on that scale means "zoom in" for more detail over a smaller area). You can toggle between "map" (showing town and road names), "satellite" for satellite imagery, and "hybrid" for both together. I have studied the predicted profiles to determine ranges of distances in kilometers that you can input into the "offset" box on Charlie's Web site to see the specified offset distance as a gray line. It plots two lines, one north and the other south of center the same distance; use the one for the direction you need. The graze ranges are described below, for areas where observers plan observations; interpolate these to get ranges for other longitudes. ___________________ For southern Maryland, longitude 76.75 deg. W.: The best locations are 1.3 km south and 2.7 km south; the highest lunar mountain reaches 3.2 km south. Another area with a long occultation (about 4 min. long), preceded by an occultation ranging from a few to 40 seconds, extends from 0.3 km north to 1.9 km north. ___________________ For near Princeton, NJ, longitude 74.7 deg. W.: The best range is from 1.3 km south to 2.7 km south; the highest mountain reaches 3.2 km south [this is the same as for Maryland] The northern "two mountain" range is from 1.0 to 2.6 km north. ___________________ For n.e. NJ & north of New York City, longitude 74.0 deg. W.: The best range is from 1.6 km south to 2.6 km south; another narrow good area is from 0.8 km south to 1.0 km south. The northern "two mountain" range is from 1.4 to 2.7 km north. ___________________ I wrote earlier about this graze: The path crosses the populous northeastern USA, so there are opportunities for most of you, and many others, to observe it. This rather favorable (for 8-inch and larger telescopes, but may be observable with 5- and 6-inch scopes) occurs early in the evening; plan to eat dinner after the graze, just concentrate on getting to the path after work (load your car before going to work) and try to get off a little early to avoid rush-hour traffic. If the weather forecast is good, there will be a DC-area expedition to south of Hughesville, MD, about 30 miles s. of DC; let me know if you might be interested in joining this effort. The occultation is also visible from parts of, or near, Charlotte & Greensboro, NC; Oliver and Carmel Church, VA; n.e. MD; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ and within 5 mi. of Cranford, NJ; part of New York City; Stamford and Meridan, CT; Fitchburg, MA; Londonderry, NH; Falmouth & Orono, Maine. The profile does not have many flat areas, but most observers will likely have at least 2 occultations of the star. _____________________________________ I plan to leave my office by 3 pm, and will be at home for final loading approximately 3:30 - 4 pm; after that, I'll be reachable only by car phone, see below. David Dunham, 2005 December 7 Phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; car 301-526-5590 emails dunham@starpower.net or office david.dunham@jhuapl.edu