Mid_Atlantic Occultations & Expeditions to early June - Updated 2008 April 23, 22h UT

Cresent Moon will occult many Preasepe stars late May 10 evening, Astronomy Day

Information about it, and other upcoming occultations and planned expeditions in the Mid-Atlantic region, is given here.

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Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) meeting on Sun. April 13 - New 2008 April 23

The Power Point file for my talk on observing occultations, and links to the videos that I showed, are given

Information about my presentation given at this meeting is here.

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Jose Guzman becomes administrator of this site

With my retirement as an employee of the Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) effective at close of business 2008 Feb. 29, I will loose access to the server on which this Web site is hosted. My APL colleague, Jose Guzman, has become the administrator of this Web site, and will upload update files that I provide him. Some of the more active Web pages will probably be hosted on another server soon; when that happens, the URL and a link will be prominently posted here. After Feb. 29, I will be working as a contractor 2 days a week at APL.

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Asteroidal Occultation Updates - 2008 March 1, 5:30 UT

Information about the spectacular occultation of 5.7-mag. SAO 94227 by the large asteroid (45) Eugenia and its moons visible from northern Mexico and the southern U.S.A. is here. Other upcoming occultations and observations of some past events are here. Results of North American asteroidal occultations are here.

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The Marginal Zone of the Moon

The rich history of efforts to map the edge of the Moon, and the interactions of those with occultations - Updated 2008 February 29

Richard Wilds has prepared an exciting historical record of the past extensive efforts to map the marginal zone of the Moon and in addition provides much material from C. B. Watts' voluminous charts that have been out of print for many years. Annotated P/D charts show the names of the craters and other marginal zone features that produce events seen by observers during grazing occultations.

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The Latest Information about Observations of Lunar Meteors

First lunar meteor recorded during lunar eclipse - New 2008 February 25

Observers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have recorded scores of lunar meteor impacts during the last few years; links are provided to their interesting and informative Web site, as well as that of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers by Brian Cudnik, also an IOTA member. Also read about lunar Perseids and lunar Leonids, including extensive documentation of the discovery 1999 and 2001 observations, and earlier extensive historical information, here. If you are set up to accurately time and video record telescopic celestial phenomena, you are encouraged to observe the Moon for both lunar meteor impacts and occultations.

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Bright lunar grazing occultation maps for 2008 - updated 2008 February 19

Maps and data of grazing occultations during this year's lunar eclipses have been added

Eberhard Riedel has provided the maps, tables, and data here. I have added links to Web sites with Google maps interactive pages for zooming in on many North American graze paths in detail.

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My Occultation Talk at the APL Astronomy Club meeting - New 2008 Jan.16

The Power Point file for my talk on observing occultations, and links to the videos that I showed, are given

My talk given at today's meeting of the Astronomy Club of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory is described here.

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Spectacular mu Arietis graze observed in Texas - Updated 2007 Dec. 14, 19h UT

The spectacular graze was well-observed about 40 miles n.w. of Houston

Reduction Profile of the Observations, and other information now added

Most of the video .avi files are here so you can see the graze

The Moon was only 10% sunlit for the graze in Texas observed from 8 stations north of Hockley that is described here. More detailed information about the observations is given now, with links to most of the videos and some of the reports.

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The occultation by (471) Papagena May 23/24 was observed from 5 stations in MD & PA - Updated 2007 Dec. 4, 23h UT

I recorded the occultation from three separate locations

Details of Curt Roelle's observation are now added

With less than 3 hours of good dark time to the event, I had to scramble to set up and successfully run three telescopes with video equipment at locations at least 10 miles from each other. For details of this effort, and other observations of the occultation by the relatively large asteroid (471) Papagena, click here. Pre-event predictions, plans, and observer lists are also there. My videos of the occultation, in large .avi files, are here. Tony George has analyzed my tapes with Registax to obtain relatively accurate times for the events at each site.

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Naked-Eye Occultation of Regulus by the Moon, s. USA, Sat. am, Nov. 3 - Updated 2007 Nov. 5, 17h UT

Expeditions for the bright-limb graze in n. Utah, s. Missouri, s.cen. Tenn. (near Alabama border), in Conyers (an Atlanta suburb) and s. of Savannah, GA were all successful

Much information is given about this good crescent-Moon occultation of 1st-mag. Regulus here.

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Al Webber celebrates his 100th Birthday - New 2007 October 31, 21h UT

As far as I know, he's the oldest IOTA member, still going strong

Al was at last year's IOTA meeting photographed by Richard Nugent. Cliff Bader provided the information about Al's recent birthday here.

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Graze of ZC 2702 was observed from 8 stations in central Maryland and from 1 each in New Jersey & New York on Wed. October 17 - Updated 2007 Nov. 5

Observation reports, as well as a link to maps & much prediction information and plans, is here.

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Virginia Association of Astronomical Societies (VAAS) meeting on Sat. October 6 - Updated 2007 Oct. 15

The Power Point file for my talk on observing occultations, and links to the videos that I showed, are given

Information about the 2007 VAAS meeting held at Crockett Park about 20 miles southwest of Manassas, VA, including about my talk and telescope/video setup demonstration about observing occultations, is here.

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Possible Occultation of 8.7-mag. SAO 160793 by Pluto, Charon, and Plutonian rings September 27 - Updated 2007 September 25, 23h UT

This was the brightest star ever predicted to be occulted by the inner parts of the Plutonian system

The occultation by Charon was expected to be visible from a large part of Asia

This general Pluto page also has a link to the results of the 2007 March 18th occultation, and gives some predictions for future events

Read about Thursday's bright possible occultation, and how you might help record occultations by rings of Pluto or by Charon, as well as information about observations of the March 18th occultation, and about future Pluto/Charon occultations to 2020, here. So far, I have not received any reports of observations of this event, but Jean Lecacheux has said that recordings of the appulse were obtained at two locations on La Reunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean (one location had good conditions throughout, while the other one had clouds about 60% of the time). These recordings will be analyzed to see if there are any fadings of the star due to possible Plutonian rings.

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The occultation by (704) Interamnia Sept. 9 was observed from 7 stations in NM, IA, & MI - New 2007 Sept. 10, 23h UT

Almost half of the asteroid's predicted diameter was covered

A preliminary report of the observations is here.

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IOTA Solar Eclipse Results Web Page - Updated 2007 Sept. 5, 17h UT

I gave a talk on solar radius variations from eclipse observations at the 2007 Solar Eclipse Conference in Los Angeles on August 25; my presentation file and some interesting details are here.

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Occultation of SAO 77528 by (146) Lucina on Aug. 21 - New 2007 Aug. 19, 3h UT

Please help us find Lucina's satellite, and if near the path, measure the size and shape of Lucina

For a limited update on Aug. 28, the occultation was observed from Arizona and New Mexico, and nearby miss observations were made elsewhere. Observational results are being posted by Brad Timerson on the North American asteroidal occultation results Web site. At some point, we'll want to perform a Limovie analysis of the video recordings to see if there are any statistically significant secondary events that might be caused by small satellites of Lucina. Note that an even better occultation by Lucina will be visible from a more northerly path across N. America the morning of September 20.

The paragraph here was prepared before the occultation: Help us find (146) Lucina's satellite Tuesday morning! In April 1982, an occultation (eclipse of a star) by a probable satellite of (146) Lucina was video recorded near Paris. Observers across most of the USA, northern Mexico, Ontario, and southern Quebec have a chance to make confirmatory observations of the satellite if they monitor the easily-found 8.2-mag. star SAO 77528 two deg. east-southeast of zeta Tauri for a few minutes just before 9h UT Tuesday morning, August 21st. For much more, click here.

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The occultation by (231) Vindobona Aug. 2 am was observed from 2 stations in Maryland - Updated 2007 Aug. 7, 17:30 UT

The northern limit probably passed over Washington, DC; Baltimore; and the n.w. suburbs of Philadelphia

A 5-second occultation at Zane Nitzkorski's site just s. of Easton, and a miss at Whaleyville w. of Ocean City, indicates that the path shifted about half a path north of predicted. For more, click here. Video (.avi) files have been added for Zane's and the northern stations.

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2007 Annual IOTA Meeting, Pasco, WA, July 20-21 - Updated 2007 Aug. 6, 21h UT

Information about the meeting, including the latest version of the agenda, is here. Election of IOTA officers for the next 3 years will occur at this meeting. Many of the presentations are now on this Web site and there a links to most of the others, and to some photoes and the meeting minutes.

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Naked eye Regulus graze over Charleston, SC June 19 pm - Updated 2007 June 22, 0h UT

Also visible with telescopes in daylight, Winnipeg to Louisville

Total occultation in w. & s. N. America, Caribbean, & n.w. S. America

The northern-limit graze zone also passed just south of Columbia, SC; expeditions were undertaken in both areas, and also southwest of Summerville, SC. But unfortunately just a few hours before the graze, thunderstorms built up and the sky was covered apparently along the whole path in S. Carolina; all the observers were clouded out, including our expedition from the DC area. A sucker hole appeared west of Summerville, but we could not get to it in time, and even if we had, it was a few miles south of the graze path. Observers in the Midwest, where the graze occurred in daylight, were more successful. Steve Welch in Wisc. and Bob Sandy near Potomac, IL video recorded the graze, while Stuart Levy, Aart Olsen, and Wayne Clark timed the graze visually. We've recently learned of an expedition with about 8 observers that successfully observed the graze near Winnipeg, Manitoba; Jay Anderson said he had 3 D's and 3 R's, but his video equipment malfunctions; I have no other information at the moment. More about this will be given later; pre-event plans and predictions, including of the total occultation, is here.

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Bright Star Grazes Observed during March 3/4 Total Lunar Eclipse - Updated 2007 July 14, 1:45 UT

Report of the 59 Leonis graze observed from Virginia, now including video segments recorded at my station

Reports and images of the 56 Leonis graze observed from Crimea

For some results and images of the 56 and 59 Leonis eclipse grazes, click here.

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Pleiades occultation, Taygeta & Maia grazes, June 13 am - Updated 2007 June 15, 23h UT

The Moon was only 4% sunlit for the spectalar Pleiades occultation and grazes on Wed. morning, June 13. Unfortunately, the expedition near Hamilton, TX led by Rick Frankenberger for the graze of Taygeta was clouded out. We know of no other efforts southwest or northeast along that path, which is too bad since the IR weather satellite image showed that it was probably clear near Del Rio, and also possibly east of Dallas. It also showed that it was clear in Salt Lake City, crossed by the spectacular 4th-mag. Maia graze path, but as far as I know, nobody tried to observe that event. Predictions and extensive pre-event plans for the Taygeta graze are described here, but I've also added there a list of future grazes of the interesting bright double star Taygeta that will be visible from North America during the rest of 2007 and all of 2008.

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Lunar occultations of Saturn and Regulus were video recorded recently in Europe - New 2007 May 30, 20h UT

Alfons Gabel recorded the Regulus graze in broad daylight

Images from the interesting video recordings, and other data, are here.

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Eclipse of Iapetus May 5 UT - New 2007 May 4, 16h UT

Start visible from Americas; End visible from E. Hemisphere

The evening of May 4 EDT in the Americas, the shadow of Saturn and its outer ring fell on the large outer satellite Iapetus. For pre-event details of this rare event, click here. The only observations of the start of the eclipse that I know of are video recordings by Brad Timerson in New York and by me; the event occurred close to the time given by the Tass prediction. The end of the eclipse was recorded in Japan and Australia.

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Fresnel diffraction explains gradual events seen during lunar grazes of bright stars - New 2007 May 4, 1h UT

Limovie plots of Tom Campbell's March 11th tau Scorpii graze show the good fit of diffraction light curves with the observed contacts

For details, click here.

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Occultation by Pluto in w. & central USA, s.w. Canada, & n. Mexico 2007 Mar. 18 am- Updated 2007 April 11, 17h UT

1st occ'n of a 14th-mag. star by Pluto predicted for USA; first observational results

Dozens of amateur and professional astronomers at widely-separated locations recorded the event and will analyze their recordings during the next several days to try to determine the astrometric details of the occultation. The observations show that the occultation occurred 5 min. late and that there was probably a substantial north shift, with the central line missing the Earth's surface. Read about them here.

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Occultation of 7th-mag. star by Venus April 26/27 was too difficult to observe - New May 4, 1h

We tried the Venus occultation on April 26, but it was too difficult; an account of the observations are here.

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Fortuna occultation Friday April 13th was lucky - New 2007 April 13, 21h UT

The occultation by Fortuna was observed from at least 9 stations spread well across its path; first results are here.

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(7) Iris occultation recorded in Virginia - New 2007 April 10, 17h

Preliminary information about the occultation is here.

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(976) Benjamina occultation recorded in Washington - New 2007 April 12, 2h

Preliminary information about the occultation is here.

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Is tau Scorpii a close double star? - New 2007 March 21, 20h UT

Tom Campbell obtained an interesting video recording of a graze of tau Sco from Florida March 11 am

The southern-limit grazing occultation of this 2.9-mag. star was observed by two expeditions in Florida; some information about them is here.

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Asteroidal Occultation Observations in late Feb. - 2007 April 3, 18h UT

Occultation of 8.7-mag. star by (51) Nemausa observed from the California desert Tues. night, Feb. 27/28

9th-mag. occultation by large asteroid (88) Thisbe Feb. 20 observed from s. Fla., s. Tex., n. Mexico

I video recorded the Nemausa occultation from two stations in the desert about 20 miles apart east of Indio, California, indicating a small north shift of the path, and that the event occurred a little earlier than predicted. Unfortunately, as far as I know, everyone else who tried was clouded out except for two who failed for various reasons. More on this is here. Better observed was the occultation by (88) Thisbe on Feb. 21 UT; details of it are on Brad Timerson's results Web site, although that does not yet have my two observations made near US 27 northwest of Miami, FL.

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Spectacular bright occultation & graze of delta Capricorni by 4% sunlit waning Moon - updated 2007 January 23, 1h UT

Binoculars & camcorder occultation visible low in s.w. early Sat. evening, Jan. 20, in n.e. USA - graze path over Richmond, VA & Ocean City, MD

The graze was successfully observed from Virginia & North Carolina

An account of the great help we received from local residents, and the observations of this best graze of 2007 for the Mid-Atlantic region, is here. It includes a link to the pre-event page that includes moonviews and maps that even non-astronomers might understand.

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(4) Vesta occultation observed Jan. 31st in S. America - Updated 2007 Feb. 2, 2h

Preliminary information about the occultation is here.

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(372) Palma occultation well-observed Jan. 26th - Updated 2007 Feb. 2, 2h

Preliminary information about the occultation is here.

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Occultations by (22) Kalliope and its satellite Linus confirmed in Japan - new 2006 November 8

6 observations, some video, were obtained for Linus and 8 for Kalliope, giving the best occultation confirmation of an asteroidal satellite

Information about these remarkable observations, with links to maps and sky-plane charts, are here. Also, the history of occultations by asteroidal satellites is described here.

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253 Mathilde Occultation observed from N. Carolina Oct. 15 - New 2006 Oct. 16

There was a one-path-width south shift (= 1 sigma) for this important occultation, which was recorded by Dan Caton at Dark Sky Observatory in western North Carolina. An account of his observation, and other miss observations, is here.

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IOTA Meeting near Wilmington, Delaware last weekend - Updated 2006 Sept. 28

The IOTA meeting was held at Mt. Cuba Observatory Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday morning, Sept. 30/Oct. 1. Click here for an agenda and more informtion.

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Occultation by 767 Bondia, Boston to n.cen. Md. to TX tonight - Updated 2006 Aug. 15, noon EDT

Miss obsservations show path didn't shift south

Click here for the first accounts of observations of the appulse of Bondia to an 11.0-mag. star near lambda Sagittarii, including a link to the extensive pre-event predictions.

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IOTA Manual

Updated files provided by Richard Nugent - Updated 2006 Aug. 23

The IOTA manual was recently taken offline at the request of the potential publisher. Some online material, at least about grazes, is given at least in the last link below. The IOTA manual became too large to maintain on Richard Nugent's Web site, so the latest version of it was here. I have added some links to some simpler material and the main link is now to the latest version of the manual on Derek Breit's Web site, which unfortunately does not describe the ACLPPP profiles that are described here.

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Spectacular Pleiades passage Thursday am July 20 for much of North America

The 24 Tauri graze was observed north of Columbus, Ohio - updated 2006 July 21

Click here for detailed information about the July 20th Pleiades passage, including at first an account of our successful observations in Ohio.

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Occultation by Pluto & Maybe P2, June 12, in NZ, Australia, & southern Indian Ocean

The occultation by Pluto was recorded in southeastern Australia - updated 2006 June 16

Read about Wolfgang Beisker's and Dave Gault's successful recordings here. Also mentioned are clouded-out attempts in New Zealand and Reunion.

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Occultation Presentations in April and June - new 2006 June 15

Given at SBAS in Torrance, Calif.; Hoffleit Symposium in New Haven, Conn.; and NCA meeting in College Park, Md.

Links and descriptions of Power Point files for three recent presentations are below. First was a presentation about both lunar grazing and asteroidal occultations, but also mentioning IOTA's solar eclipse work and lunar meteor impacts, given Friday evening, April 7, at the South Bay Astronomical Society's meeting in Torrance, California, a 16-megabyte file here. Next was a presentation describing mainly double star occultation results from occultations, and occultations of bright stars by asteroids, given at the symposium celebrating Dorrit Hoffleit's centenniel year on April 29 in New Haven, Conn., a 3-megabyte file here. It described breifly my career after I obtained my doctorate degree at Yale in 1971, and gave information about, for example, the duplicity of delta Scorpii observed during lunar grazes in Arizona in 1985 and in New York City in 2003. Finally, I gave a presentation at the National Capital Astronomer's meeting at the Univ. of Maryland Observatory on June 10, first describing IOTA's solar eclipse work (I showed the video I obtained of the solar eclipse on March 29 in Turkey), then noting that since the next solar eclipse was a couple of years (and many miles) away, there were closer and earlier eclipse-like occultations that could be observed. The presentation includes the latest analysis of two asteroidal occultations that were observed in the Washington, DC region, first of a 9th-mag. spectroscopic standard star that turned out to be a very close double on 2005 Dec. 1 (asteroid 99 Dike), and the trans-Atlantic 152 Atala occultation of 2006 May 6-7, in a 3-megabyte file here.

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Meager Results of the Memorial Day Weekend Asteroid Occultations - new 2006 May 30

There was only one positive observation, by Isara from Martel, Ohio

Click here for information about the one positive and several negative observations of the occultations. The path for (364) Isara apparently shifted at least a full path-width south of the predicted path.

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Grazing Occultation by (402) Chloe on May 21 - new 2006 May 25

On Sunday morning, May 21, I video recorded an occultation of a 12.3-mag. UCAC2 star (but the V-mag. is 12.9) by (402) Chloe using an image intensifier and PC164C camera with David Werner's 8-in. SCT from a location beside a farm field a mile east of Jacumba, California, two miles north of the Mexican border, two miles south of I-8, 70 miles east of San Diego (where it was cloudy from an approaching Pacific storm), and about 7 km south of Steve Preston's predicted northern limit. The occultation lasted almost 3 seconds, but the star flashed out, appartently in a valley of Chloe, in the middle of the occultation. Three nights later, I recorded the star and Chloe separately with the same video equipment from my home in Greenbelt, MD, confirming that Chloe was fainter than the star, at least with my equipment. I hope to have more on this later.

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Occultation of 16 Piscium by (7) Iris was best ever predicted for the n.e. USA

Most of the populous n.e. U.S.A. was in the wide path for Fri. am's event - updated 2006 May 31

The occultation was observed by six observers; the star's close duplicity was resolved

Unfortunately, clouds prevented observation of the occultation from many locations, especially in the southern part of the path, but six observations (actually, 5 1/2) were obtained, including Bruce Thompson's spectacular video showing step events as the two components of the close double star were occulted. Click here for more information.

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Occultation of 10th-mag. star by Atala Sat. evening

This Astronomy Day event was visible across the DC region late Sat. evening - updated 2006 May 31

Nine observations were obtained, well-distributed across the path, mostly in central Maryland and the Washington, DC region, but also one observation from near Madrid, Spain and a photoelectric observation from Grinnell, Iowa. More information about the observations is here.

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Lunar SAO 78233 Graze Timed from 4 Stations in NJ & s.e. Penn. May 1

I video recorded May 1st's grazing occultation of SAO 78233 near Swedesboro, New Jersey. You can read about my observations here that also includes a link to detailed path maps and plans for the event. Cliff Bader obtained a spectacular video recording that apparently resovled the close components of the triple star, but the more distant fainter 3rd star was more difficult. Two others also observed the graze, including Al Webber, over 95 years old, who had a close miss from his home in Chadds Ford, Penn.

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(304) Olga Occultation Timed from 2 Stations in Virginia

Observations were made near the predicted central line near Ashland and Lexington - updated 2006 April 25

Click here for details of the observations, one video and one visual, and for some information about the occultation by Euterpe, which was clouded out in the Mid-Atlantic region but which was observed from two observatories, one in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota.

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Wed. pm (1315) Bronislawa occultation path shifted south

2 video and 1 visual observations in Maryland showed about a 1.2 path-width (about 1.5 sigma) shift of the path south; Bronislawa may be elongated and/or larger than expected - updated 2006 April 20

Click here for the first reports of this occultation, including a summary list of all known attempts to observe it, and a link to pre-event plans, charts, and predictions.

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Spectacular Pleiades Occultation Sat. pm, April 1, in e. North America - updated 2006 April 3

The 16% sunlit thin crescent Moon made this the best Pleiades passage for the e. U.S.A. since 1969

Spectacular dark-limb grazes of Celaeno, Maia, and Taygeta were observed from New York City, the Washington (DC) area, Statesboro (Georgia)

Early Saturday evening, April 1st, the thin crescent Moon, 16% sunlit, passed through the Pleiades star cluster. Pre-event links to predictions, detailed maps, plans, etc., are here. More about results will be added later, especially about the highly successful Taygeta graze led by Harold Povenmire. Unlike in 1969, only a few gradual/step events were observed; apparently the 6th-mag. companion is either near periastron, very close to the primary now, or south of it where its events would be hard to detect during this northern-limit graze.

Special Section on the Maia Graze, best in the DC region since 1969, visible with binoculars & some camcorders, now with simple Moon views added - updated 2006 March 31

The weather was touch and go, but over 15 observers set up along Jennings Mill Dr. in southern Bowie to observe the spectacular graze, and other events during the Pleiades passage. A brief report of the results, and pre-event detailed path and prediction information, are here.

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Good Marianna Occultation Sun. am, Mar. 12 - updated 2006 March 16

3 observers in central Texas saw the occultation; their data show that Marianna probably has a strange dumbbell shape

At mag. 7.8, it was the brightest star occulted by a large asteroid in North America this winter

I had the shorted occultation from a site northwest of Brady, TX, even though I was between the other two observers, Paul Maley near Abilene and Rick Frankenberger southwest of Brady. Unfortunately, many other potential observers were clouded out. Pre-event prediction information, maps, finder charts, and some plans are here. More about the results will be posted here soon.

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Good Turandot Occultation Fri. am, Feb. 24 - updated 2006 March 3

First analysis (sky plane plot) is now here

It was well-observed from Wisconsin to northern North Carolina

The actual path was about 40 km northeast of the predicted path

About a dozen timings of the occultation distributed rather well across the path were obtained, as well as miss (no occultation) observations bracketing both limits. Besides the US observations, three in western Canada watched the target star and had no occultation (they were too far south relative to the actual shadow path). Good video recordings were obtained at the 3 telescopes I set up near I-69 northwest of Indianapolis; a few others also obtained good video timings. See the results, including the sky plane plot with an ellipse fitted to the observations, here.

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Occultation by (54) Alexandra 2005 May 17 - new 2006 March 8

The elliptical fit (sky plane plot) and the data are here

It was well-observed from Oklahoma, Texas, and southern Baja California

The actual path was about 0.3 path-width southeast of the predicted path

The occultation was timed from 11 stations, making it the best- observed asteroidal occultation of the first 11 months of 2005 (I think only the 52 Europa occultation of Dec. 3 was timed from more stations during 2005). In spite of the south shift, the path was covered rather well to give a good elliptical fit. See the results, including the sky plane plot with an ellipse fitted to the observations, here.

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Clear for 9th-mag. graze Sat. night in n. Virginia - updated 2006 March 3

It was clear, but the graze was marginal and little or no data were recorded.

Jared Zitwer and I set up 4 video stations along a deserted road just east of I-95 near Thornburg, VA, to try to record this graze, but it was difficult with the poor seeing at the 15-deg. altitude, and glare from the 31% sunlit Moon with the star 5 deg. from the north cusp at central graze. Read prediction information and see some cool maps here. Some information about the March 2nd graze, which was not observed, is given.

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Chance lost to Confirm an Asteroidal Satellite - updated 2006 Feb. 20

Niobe occulted a 10.5-mag. star in Sextans last Wed. night, Feb. 15/16, in Mexico, s. Florida, & southern Europe

A few miss observations, from Tampa, FL and a few locations farther north, were reported, but no positive observations have been reported. Unfortunately, virtually all of southern Europe was clouded out. The IR satellite view showed a few clouds, but mostly clear around Naples, FL, but I think at least some thin clouds over Miami. I had to cancel my plans to try the event near Naples due to a death in my family. Prediction information is here.

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Occultation of Spica Friday night, Feb. 17/18 - updated 2006 Feb. 20

It was the last night lunar occultation of Spica for North America for several years

The star reappeared from behind the dark side of the gibbous Moon shortly after moonrise for eastern North America. But it was mostly cloudy across the Mid-Atlantic region, and most other areas of eastern North America. Stephen Meeks said his group did try the graze from an inland location with a low view to the east near Darien, Georgia, but the Moon rose in two bands of thin clouds; they were not able to see Spica at all until about 4 min. after the graze. Prediction information is here.

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February 5/6 Lunar Pleiades Passage - updated 2006 February 7, 8 pm EST

So far, I have received no reports of successful observations of any of the grazing occultations

Everyone so far has reported problems with clouds. Click here for some accounts of the expeditions that tried the Atlas and Electra grazing occultations. Extensive prediction information is also here. In fact, the only Pleiades timing I've heard of was a total occultation of Merope by an observer in St. George, Utah, one of the few western locations where it was clear. He was unable to time the occultation of Alcyone because the Moon moved behind his house shortly before it occurred.

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10th-mag. event by 490 Veritas was timed from at least 5 sites in North Carolina on UT 2006 Jan. 28

I recorded the Veritas occultation from sites 34 miles apart near St. Pauls and Falcon, NC, north and south of Fayetteville. The site at St. Pauls was with a pre-pointed remote telescope near the predicted central line while I recorded the event in person near Falcon 48 km north of the predicted central line. But the event was longer at Falcon, apparently nearly central there, so the path shifted perhaps 1/3rd path-width north of the prediction. More about this good occultation will be posted later. The prediction information for this is here.

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Recent and future Saturn occultations - 2006 Jan. 30

Interesting dimmings behind the rings and in the atmosphere near Saturn's south pole were observed at Pic du Midi Observatory, France, during a recent occultation of a 7.9-mag. star

David Herald summarizes the results of this event, and gives the short list of future Saturn occultations.

Read about the recent observations at Pic du Midi and at other European locations, and see the list of future occultations by the ringed planet here. Included is information about an occultation of 5.8-mag. 105 Tauri that will be visible from parts of North America in 2032.

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The New Horizons Spacecraft was observed near Perth, Western Australia after its launch on January 19 - Updated 2006 January 20, 18:50 UT

It was spectacular just after 3rd-stage separation; some images are here

Click here for prediction links and information about observing the spacecraft, and click here for Greg Bolt's interesting report from Perth, Western Australia, now with an animated gif that he obtained with his 10" telescope.

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January 12/13 Chantal occultation observations - new 2006 January 16

A possible visual observation of a short event in Pennsylvania shows that the path may have shifted northwest to the Shenandoah Valley

Click here for information about the 13 observations of the occultation of 9.5-mag. SAO 76774, at least 12 of which were negative (no occultation reported).

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January 9/10 Lunar Pleiades Passage - new 2006 January 11

Click here for some images and accounts of observations of the passage of the Moon through the Pleiades on 2006 January 9/10 made from North and South America.

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Bright Lunar Occultations in North America, Dec. 23 - 28 - new 2005 December 19

The Highlight is Christmas morning's Spica occultation, best in the West, but visible in daylight in the East

3rd-mag. beta Vir will be occulted at night for most of N. America Fri. am, Dec. 23, with a good graze from the San Francisco, Calif. area to Palm Bay, Florida

Other good 5th-mag. binoculars events in the West the mornings of Dec. 26 and 28

Much information, with observing plans and links to extensive predictions and very detailed maps, is here.

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Asteroidal Occultation Presentation at Small Bodies Educator's Conference - updated 2005 December 19

The version of this presentation that I gave at this conference sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is here (the main talk about asteroidal occultations) with the part about the NEAR mission, the first to orbit and land on an asteroid, here. Links have been added to the large .avi video files of asteroidal occultations that I showed at the meeting here.

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Dec. 7th graze of 8.8-mag. star video recorded - updated 2005 December 9

Two D's and 2 R's were video recorded from Kent Island in the Maryland part of the Chesapeake Bay

Robert Vanderbei's images from Princeton, NJ show the star well

Click here for accounts of observations, and predictions of, the graze visible along the populous East Coast early the evening of Dec. 7. The graze was also video recorded from Londonderry, New Hampshire - more about that later.

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2005 IOTA Meeting, Stillwater, Oklahoma, Oct. 29-30

First IOTA Meeting that was Webcast - Updated 2005 Dec. 19

With webcasting, many observers were able to attend this meeting virtually, if not physically. Detailed information about the meeting, with an agenda and links for several of the talks to items with much more information about them, can be found here. A link to R. Nugent's Web page shows 6 pictures taken at the meeting. It also includes some information about, and a link to, the IOTA manual.

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Large asteroid (52) Europa occulted 8.9-mag. SAO 139619 Sat. am, Dec. 3, s.w. USA - updated 2005 December 1

It was timed from more than 15 locations in Calif., Ariz., & N.Mex.

The path shifted about 0.2 path-widths north. Much more about this so-far best-observed asteroidal occultation of 2005 will be posted here later; for now, there is only pre-event predictions and plans here.

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(99) Dike occulted 8.9-mag. SAO 58354 Thur. am, Dec. 1 - updated 2005 December 1

The occultation was timed from 5 sites in Maryland and Virginia

Step events revealed SAO 58354 to be a close double

Click here for preliminary information about the interesting observations of this relatively bright star. Since this account was written, I received a well-placed (for covering the event) observation from Bob Wetmore in Bethesda, MD. Unfortunately, bad weather prevented observations northwest of the Washington, DC region. You can see the videos of the occultation here.

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Nov. 25/26 Occultation of 9.5-mag. star by 17-km (955) Alstede recorded in s. MD

The narrow path shifted almost two path-widths north - new 2005 Nov. 28

On Friday evening, November 25 (Nov. 26 UT), Alstede occulted 9.5-mag. PPM 90693 in Pisces in a path extending from Newfoundland to central Mexico. Skies were mostly clear in the northeastern USA. I video recorded the event at a remote site using a Kiwi time inserter. Details are here. You can see my remote video of the occultation here.

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Two Asteroidal Occultations were observed last night

Occultations by 76 Freia and 1048 Feodosia timed in southern Arizona

Both Jim Stamm and Derald Nye timed both events from their home - New 2005 Nov. 22

Last night, from 3:38 to 7:09 UT, two occultation paths crossed Tucson, AZ, and J. Stamm in Oro Valley north of town, and D. Nye in Corona de Tucson south of town, both timed both events, the first time, as far as I know, that two observers timed two asteroidal occultations in one night. Freia occulted 11.3-mag. TCY 6330-00690-1 in Capricornus at 3:38 UT, then Feodosia occulted 11.9-mag. TYC 1236-00138-1 in Taurus at 7:08 UT. Too bad more observers in the Tucson area didn't try these events. Jim McGaha tried to observe both from Grasslands Observatory near Sonoita, AZ southeast of Nye's location, but was clouded out for Freia and had no occultation for Feodosia. Richard Nugent also timed the Feodosia event near its southern limit (he had only a 1-second occultation) north of Houston, TX. Richard also timed the occultation of TYC 0743-00628-1 by (628) Christine the previous night, 2005 Nov. 21 at 3:46 UT.

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Nov. 16/17 Occultation of 11th-mag. star by (99) Dike, s. Virginia to s. Arizona

The path prediction was accurate

The occultation was observed in s. Virginia and s.e. Arizona - New 2005 Nov. 17

On Wed. night, November 16/17, Dike occulted 11.4-mag. UCAC2 44112722 in a path extending from s. Virginia to s.e. Arizona. Two positive observations were obtained, and also negative observations closely bracketed both limits. First results are here.

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Nov. 14/15 Occultation of 9th-mag. star by 100-km (345) Tercidina, n. Calif. - n. Mo.

The path shifted almost half a path-width north

Several in n. Calif. and n.w. Nevada timed chords across the s. half of Tercidina - updated 2005 Nov. 28

On Monday night, November 14/15, Tercidina occulted 8.9-mag. SAO 145911 in a path extending from northern California to northern Missouri. Skies were mostly cloudy from central Nevada eastward. First results are here. You can see my remote video of the occultation here.

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Nov. 10/11 Occultation of 10.3-mag. star in Pisces by (116) Sirona, Iberia & USA - Delmarva to El Paso

Occultation observed from at least 6 locations - updated 2005 Nov. 12, 0h UT

On Thursday night, November 10/11, the 72-km asteroid (116) Sirona occulted 10.3-mag. SAO 110124 in a path extending from the Delmarva Peninsula to El Paso, but the path shifted about half a path-width north of that expected, and clouds ruined observation from central Virginia. The star is probably a close double. Read more here.

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Nov. 8 (UT) Occultation by (449) Hamburga timed from 2 New England sites - updated 2005 Nov. 9, 1h UT

Mon. evening's (Nov. 7th local time) occultation of 11.9-mag. XZ 55443 in Cetus by (449) Hamburga was timed from two locations, and others reported either a miss or various problems. Read more here.

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Oct. 29th Occultation by large asteroid (790) Pretoria, BC - MS

Occultation of 10.8-mag. star near Hydra's head - updated 2005 Nov. 28

Tulsa, Oklahoma was in the path; observers there and some attending the 2005 IOTA meeting timed the occultation from 6 locations across the path. Some west of Tulsa were clouded out. Benny Roberts obtained a 7th chord from Mississippi. More information will be posted here soon. For details, click here.

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Oct. 19th Occultation of Regulus by (166) Rhodope

This rare event was timed from 9 sites across southern Europe - updated 2005 Nov. 28

Information about this spectacular occultation, with links to extensive publicity for the event, information about strange Regulus, and more, is here. You can see my remote video of the occultation here.

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Bright Alma asteroid occultation Oct. 25 am Ariz. to Delaware

8.3-mag. star near Castor high in sky - updated 2005 Oct. 17

Bad weather ruined this event in the Mid-Atlantic States. Steve Welch recorded the occultation from a site in New Mexico near the predicted central line. Equipment problems plagued others, and some have reported no occultation from their location. Prediction information is here.

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Oct. 6 (61) Danae Occultation Observed near Toronto, Ont.

Clouds from Tammy covered the view to s. Penn. - updated 2005 Oct. 12

The observation was near the predicted central line, showing that the prediction was good. Some others outside the predicted path reported no occultation. Prediction information is here. I will try to give more information later.

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(221)Oct. 6 (221) Eos Occultation Observed from Calif. and Nevada

Path was half a path north of predicted - updated 2005 Oct. 12

The occultation was video recorded by Peter Dunckel from Grass Valley, Calif. and timed visually by Red Sumner in Carson City, Nevada. Derek Breit had no occultation from Martinez, Calif., bracketing the southern limit, which was north of San Francisco and Oakland. Sacramento and Reno were in the path. Prediction information is here. I will try to give more information later.

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(409) Aspasia Occultation Sept. 29 UT timed from 2 Mid-Atlantic sites

Path shifted north 0.7 path-width - updated 2005 Oct. 5

Weather was poor farther west

Click here for information about the occultation observed by Curt Roelle at Marston, MD and by John Brooks at Stephens City, VA, both rather close to the predicted northern limit, and an account of my remote miss observation from Cape Lookout, MD, closer to the expected southern limit, and attempt at Mechanicsville, MD.

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Solar Radius Variations from Solar Eclipse Observations - New 2005 Sept. 21

I gave a poster presentation, "Accuracy of Solar Radius Determinations from Solar Eclipse Observations, and Comparison with SOHO Data", at the 3rd annual Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Science Meeting, with theme "Paleo Connections Between the Sun, Climate, and Culture", in Durango, Colorado, Sept. 14 - 16. The poster was in the form of 16 panels in a Power Point file here. For an overview, see panels (or "slides") 10 (a plot of the eclipse and some other radius measurements) and 16 (the last one with a summary of the main conclusions and some recommendations), while panel 8 lists the observers whose data were used in the new analyses and panel 9 is a summary list of the results. James Thompson, now a student at the University of Virginia, performed the new analyses working with me from early June to mid-August with support from NASA. Some with older versions of Power Point can't open the file; a version in the 1997 format is here (larger, 8 megabytes).

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Occultation by (253) Mathilde in Midwest August 23 pm

Steven Lucy video recorded the occultation from Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin, about 20 km northeast of the center of Steve Preston's predicted path. Steven Messner also video recorded it from an observatory about 20 km southwest of the central line in western Wisconsin, showing that Steve Preston's predictions were accurate (truly a "Steve" event). Prediction information about this occultation by the slow-rotating asteroid, half-imaged by the NEAR spacecraft in 1997, is here.

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Aug. 13th Occultation of 1 Trianguli by (89) Julia - updated Aug. 24

The occultation was observed from 7 stations from Baja to Saskatchewan

7.6-mag. 1 Trianguli was occulted by the 150-km asteroid (89) Julia in a south-to-north path that passed over the Rocky Mountains, as well as southern Baja Calif. and Saskatchewan, on Saturday morning, August 13, 2005. The observations and a fairly good elliptical fit to them are here, now including pictures of James Thompson's site and the equipment he used to video record the occultation.

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2005 IOTA Meeting in Stillwater, Okla., Oct. 29-30 - updated Aug. 22

Read plans for this year's IOTA meeting in northern Oklahoma prepared by Art Lucas and Derek Breit here.

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Gudrun Occultation Observed from Marston, MD

Read how Curt Roelle defeated the haze and found the faint Gudrun target star in time to video record it here.

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Good 8.7-mag. (780) Armenia asteroidal occ'n Sun. am July 24 - updated 2005 Aug. 2

The occultation was video recorded from two stations in central Tennessee

I set up and pre-pointed telescopes near Fairview, TN and in the western suburbs of Nashville, TN to record the occultation. James Thompson connected the camcorder and turned on the equipment shortly before the event near Fairview, where he recorded a 9-second occultation. John Graves and his family did the same with the telescope in western Nashville, where a 5-second occultation was recorded. I observed from a site south of Lebanon, TN, about 20 miles east of downtown Nashville, and had no occultation. I also ran a 4th station 20 miles farther east, south of Carthage, TN, but it was clouded out, and surely would have had no occultation, also. The observations showed that the path shifted about 0.6 path-width west, or about 1-sigma west, of Preston's predicted path, much more information about which is here. Later, a sky-plane plot and details will be posted here.

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July 17/18 Antares N. American Occultation & Graze - 2005 July 19

Spectacular graze timed from dozens of stations in 11 expeditions

An occultation of the red giant double star Antares (alpha Scorpii) by the highly gibbous Moon occurred on July 18 UT (evening of July 17 for most) visible from southern North America. The dark-limb grazing occultation was well-observed from 11 expeditions from Olympia, WA to Atlanta, GA. If you didn't see it, you missed a good one, but later we'll post some videos on a Web site so you can get some idea of what you missed (or relive it if you did observe it). Information about the 11 expeditions, information and details for reporting observations, and prediction maps and information are here.

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Please See Below if you timed an asteroidal occultation since 2002 - updated 2005 July 27

Please Verify My List of Observed Occultations

All of the known observations are now posted

A summary list of all known asteroidal occultations that have been observed can be found here. I would appreciate it if you could view the list, and let me know about anything that I may have missed, or any corrections that I should make. One event, the (204) Kallisto occultation on July 12, was inadvertantly left out (see the next item below), and now there are some other more recent events as well.

The details of all known asteroidal occultation observations, as well as of several occultations by planetary satellites, can be found here, a copy of the "Observations.dat" file, version of 2005 July 27, used by Dave Herald's Occult program. A description of the format and quantities in this file is here. If you find any errors, or have any additions, please send them by e-mail to me at david.dunham@jhuapl.edu . There are some known observations that are not in the Observations.dat file, but they should be indicated in the summary list above, which as far as we know is complete to late July (but with a few exceptions).

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Good 8.1-mag. (204) Kallisto asteroidal occ'n Tues. am July 12 - updated 2005 July 13 pm

The occultation was timed from at least seven locations from Connecticut to Washington State

The actual path was about 0.4 path-widths north of the predicted path and occurred only about 0.1 minute early

The path shifted a little less than 1-sigma north of its predicted location. I video recorded the occultation from near Newburgh, NY. More information about the observations is here.

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Reporting Asteroidal Occultation Observations - updated 2005 April 22

Observers should report their observations by editing (with Notepad, Word, or most any other word processor) the plain ASCII text form that can be obtained here or, with Netscape, you can fill out a Web form interactively here. If you have an old "master" of the form on you computer, please change my e-mail address to the current one, dunham@starpower.net .

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July 11th Charon occ'n well-observed in S. America - new 2005 July 12

This is the first time that an occultation by Pluto's large moon has been recorded from multiple locations

Jean Lecacheux's first results from a Planoccult message are here.

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May 24th Antares Occultation Photographed in Florida

An occultation of the red giant double star Antares (alpha Scorpii) by a nearly full Moon was photographed from Stuart, Florida on May 24th - see a brief account and the images here.

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Lamberta occultation July 7th timed in Baja & s.w. Texas - updated 2005 July 5 pm

Many in Texas & Oklahoma were clouded out

Click here for accounts of several efforts to observe this occultation of a 9.7-mag. star, including reports of timings of the event from southern Baja California and from Limpia Observtory, Ft. Davis, Texas.

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May 20th Kassandra occultation in twilight - 2005 May 31

Lessons learned for finding targets in twilight

Tom Bash observed a short occultation of Kassandra from eastern Pennsylvania. But mobile observers didn't find the target star in time, learning some valuable lessons for future events in evening twilight. Click here for more information.

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Graze of 7.7-mag. star observed from Laurel, MD May 11/12

Lunar Profile Derived from the Observations is here - updated 2005 June 19

On 2005 May 11 EDT, or May 12 UT, nearly a dozen observers set up telescopes at six stations in southwestern Laurel, Maryland to observe the grazing occultation of 7.7-mag. SAO 78191. Although it was a little hazy at the 12-deg. altitude above the n.w. horizon, some thin clouds present earlier moved away to give a fairly clear view of the graze at the right time. The lunar profile derived from all of the observations, and other details, is here.

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(786) Bredichina 87 km across from April 10th timings - new 2005 May 7

Don Lynn had a short occultation near Anza, California and I video recorded a nearly central event from Poway, about 12 miles north of San Diego. The observations, including a sky-plane plot, are here.

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Occultation of 8th-mag. star by (1043) Beate March 30/31 - updated 2005 May 7

Steve Preston's prediction was quite accurate; visual timings of the occultation, each with duration about 1.5 seconds, were made by John Brooks near Woodstock, VA (track 5N) and by Elizabeth Warner and Dennis Wellnitz at the UMD Observatory in College Park, MD (track 18N). The observations, including a sky-plane plot, are here.

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Occultation by Binary Asteroid May 8 - updated 2005 May 9

The binary asteroid (171) Ophelia occulted an 11.7-mag. star across much of California, s.w. Arizona, and northern Mexico Saturday night, May 7-8, around 6h UT of May 8 UT. Derek Breit coordinated coverage of the path, including up to 300 km away where an occultation by Ophelia's estimated 20-km satellite can occur. So far, only one positive observation has been reported, an inaccurately timed CCD observation from the OCA Observatory near Anza, California, several miles north of Mt. Palomar. Detailed information (mainly prediction) is here.

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Occultation by Large Asteroid (106) Dione Tues. pm - updated 2005 May 12

The 146-km asteroid (106) Dione (NOT the moon of Saturn) may have occulted an 11.4-mag. star from eastern Iowa to eastern North Carolina Tues. May 10 evening; Indiana and s.w. Ohio had clear skies for the event, but thin clouds probably spoiled the view in Virginia and N. Carolina. So far, I know of no observations of this event. More information, including detailed station data, can be found here.

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upsilon Gem graze April 15 well-observed in California - new 2005 April 18

It was timed or video recorded from 11 stations in the S.F. Bay Area and from a few more in the Mojave Desert

Ed Morana, one of the observers in the expedition led by Walter Morgan for the upsilon Gem in the Bay area, has posted his results, including clips of the events he recorded, here. See the top item (Mid-Atlantic expeditions) for how a faint graze observed last week locally helped the California effort. Analysis of this well- observed graze is continuing. The next night, a graze of 6th-mag. 24 Cancri was observed by Richard Nolthenius from the Mojave Desert (where he also observed the upsilon Gem graze), and David Werner timed 2 D's and 2 R's during that graze from a site near the Salton Sea.

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Finding Target Stars with GoTo Telescopes - updated 2005 April 1

Walter Morgan describes 8 steps that he uses to robustly find target stars using his GoTo telescope; his success rate has increased greatly since obtaining this telescope three years ago. I have added some suggestions and comments that might make the procedure even a little better, or at least avoid some problems that sometimes occur with these telescopes. Additional problems that can occur, and some possible remedies, are described by Tony George and Guy Nason.

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Feb. 10th occultation timings show that (71) Niobe probably has a large satellite - updated 2005 Feb. 24

The occultation of 8.0-mag. SAO 38784 = HIP 15831 was observed photoelectrically by Bob Cadmus at Grinnell College Observatory, Grinnell, Iowa, and Doug Kniffen, south of Warrenton, MO, timed a 1.0-second occultation using a 16-inch telescope. Both observations were definite and accurately timed, but an analysis of them shows a 35-second mismatch that is most easily explained as occultations by two separate objects. A short Niobe occultation timed in Japan last November might also have been caused by the satellite. The next occultations by Niobe will occur on Nov. 10 and on 2006 Feb. 16. Details of the observations, including a sky-plain view, are here.

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2004 Sept. 11/12 Palisana Occ'n observed from NY to Baja - updated 2005 Feb. 14

Second elliptical fit to the 8 observations is better

The occultation of 7.2-mag. SAO 36280 A = HIP 1642 A by the asteroid (914) Palisana was observed from 8 locations from New York to Baja California, giving rather good coverage, but it would have been better observed if the actual path had not been about 1.5 path-widths south of the last prediction. Nevertheless, it was the best-observed asteroidal occultation of 2004 in North America. The sky-plain view, observational data, and discussion are here. Thanks to everyone who tried to observe this occultation.

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Table for March Asteroidal Occ'ns in N. America - new 2005 Feb. 14

A map of 22 asteroidal occultation paths crossing populous parts of North America was published on p. 71 of the March 2005 issue of Sky and Telescope, but no information about them was given (except for the March 10th Ianthe event that is also on the world map on p. 70). A table giving basic information about the occultations shown on the map is here; it is a wide table that is a text file that must be displayed with a fixed-space font, of small font size and in landscape mode to prevent line wrapping.

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(8) Flora Occultation observed from New Mexico - Updated 2004 Nov. 10

2nd success in Oct. recording an asteroid occ'n at 2 separate stations

Flora larger than expected and path farther north

All known observations of this occulation are given here, where a plot of the data in the sky plane, including the best- fit ellipse, can also be found. The actual path was north of S. Preston's prediction, actually apparently very close to Goffin's nominal prediction shown on the map on p. 103 of the March issue of Sky and Telescope. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy in the Mid-Atlantic States, and several other locations, too. Rich Richins' observation from Las Cruces, NM, omitted by mistake from the figure on p. 71 of the March issue of Sky and Telescope (a correction will be published), is included with the detailed information at the link above. ____________________________________________________

New Record for Highest-Numbered Observed Asteroidal Occultation - New 2005 Jan. 17

Kerry Coughlin in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico, recorded a brief occultation of 6th-mag. ZC 555 by (41948) 2000 XX7

Read details of the Jan. 16th video observation of this occultation of 6.4-mag. ZC 555 = SAO 76206 = HIP 17759 near the Pleiades here.

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Links for Video Time Inserter and "Ideal" Occultation Telescope - Updated 2005 Jan. 19

Here are two valuable Web sites from down under: Kiwi Geoff's OSD video time inserter has information about Fresnel diffraction and other useful video information, while Dave Gault in Australia is trying to design an ideal video occultation telescope. Also, here is a link to Don McAfee's site describing his video time inserter.

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First Observed 2005 Asteroidal Occultation - updated 2005 Jan. 14

(59) Elpis occultation timed from 3 sites in Japan on Jan. 2

The occultation of 10.9-mag. TYC 0810-00213-1 by the relatively large asteroid (59) Elpis was observed from three locations in Japan while several other Japanese observers reported no occultation, establishing the limits reasonably well. A sky-plane plot of the observations is here. So far this year, Japanese observers have timed 5 asteroidal occultations, while bad weather has plagued most of the rest of the world, where so far only two definite occultations have been timed, one from Oregon and the other from North Carolina.

An occultation of 11.9-mag. TYC 0865-00664-1 by (464) Megaira was timed from one location in Japan on 2004 December 26, the last- observed asteroidal occultation of 2004, as far as I know. A sky- plane plot also showing the paths of 5 observers reporting no occultation, is here. Congratulations to Japanese observers for making these first and last observations, as well as the best-observed asteroidal occultation of 2004, in February with the occultation of an 8th-mag. star by (498) Tokio, the profile of which was published on the cover of the current issue of Occultation Newsletter.

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A Graze Profile Recorded by Myself - New 2004 Dec. 20

ZC 3434 Graze Video Recorded from 3 Sites at Valley Lee, MD

I ran two remote telescopes and one attended one to record the graze of 7.5-mag. ZC 3434 on the dark side of the crescent Moon Friday evening, Dec. 17 (Dec. 18, UT just after 1h UT). Click here for a preliminary report.

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Binary Kuiper Belt Occultation Feb. 10/11 - updated 2005 Feb. 14

An 11.8-mag. star just south of the Praesepe Cluster might be occulted by an approximately 140-km double Kuiper Belt Object after 0h UT of Feb. 11 UT, for observers in South America, eastern North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; more information is here, including an update based on new astrometry obtained last night. So far, I have only one negative report from an observer in South Africa.

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Observations of Dec. 7th Lunar Occultation of Jupiter - Updated 2004 Dec. 9

Jupiter's ring possibly video recorded in Nebraska

With much effort, I managed to find clear sky for the occultation near Shelton, Nebraska, and others observed the graze and near-graze at locations near the southern limit. Click here for more information.

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Nov. 9th daytime lunar occultation of Jupiter observed in MD - New 2004 Nov. 12

Ed Abel and I managed to image this occultation from locations in central Maryland, in spite of a partly cloudy sky. Details are here.

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Occultation Package from Adirondack Video - updated 2004 Oct. 19

Adirondack Video now sells KT&C's KPC-350BH sensitive cameras, known to many occultation observers by Supercircuit's "PC164C" designation. In addition, they sell a complete occultation video system for $169; click here for details.

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Two Good Lumen-ous Occultations - Updated 2005 January 14

Timings from 5 stations in Japan show a half-path-width north shift that probably occurred also for the Jan. 7th event

The relatively large asteroid (141) Lumen occults two relatively luminous (9th mag.) stars the mornings of Jan. 5 and 7 in the continental USA, as well as in parts of Hawaii, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, and Thailand. An initial analysis of the Jan. 5th observations (8 positive observations were made in Japan), including sky plane plots, and an updated detailed station list for Jan. 7, and updated weather forecasts, are here. Unfortunately, most mainland observers were clouded out on Jan. 7, with apparently the only really clear area in central Colorado, where two observers north of the expected path reported no occultation. An observer in Oahu also saw no occultation. I may have recorded an occultation with a remote telescope north of Pueblo, Colorado, but wind shook the telescope at the critical time and timing was difficult (no WWV signals) so some analysis is needed to verify or refute that event, which may conflict with the Oahu miss observation.

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Alfaterna lost the election Tues. Nov. 2 - Updated 2004 Nov. 10

low voter turn-out in central MD led to Alfaterna's defeat

The occultation of the 9.2-mag. star was seen by Joe Sedlak in Glenn Dale, MD, but by nobody else; the path shifted north into central Maryland rather than being over southern Maryland as expected. Details are here.

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Nov. 9th 752 Sulamitis covered well - New 2004 Nov. 12

Target star might be close double with path over Baltimore

An occultation of an 11.4-mag. star in Gemini, only 9' from an 8th- mag. star and 2 deg. from Saturn, occurred Tues. morning, Nov. 9, from a path expected to pass over Tucson, Arizona, then northeastward across the USA to northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. It was clear for the event in many of these areas but all but one observer reported no occultation. If the star was a close double, the occultation might not have been noticeable to some. Details are here.

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Bright Kahrstedt Occultation timed in Texas and Baja Calif. - New 2004 Oct. 22

Preston's Central Line was over a Mexican Whorehouse

Click here for details about the interesting observatioons of the occultation of 7.8-mag. ZC 17 by (1587) Kahrstedt on Oct. 20 UT. Unfortunately, it was cloudy over much of the long path that extended from Bulgaria to Spain, and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean to N. Carolina, crossing North America to central Baja California.

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2.1 negatives, no positives for Hollandia - new 2004 Oct. 18

(1132) Hollandia occulted a 10.0-mag. star in a path that was predicted to cross both s.w. Europe and the USA from coast to coast. It held much promise, and several tried it, but most were clouded out. I had to race clouds to get the only clear-cut negative observation within the path, while Jose Guzman ran a pre-pointed telescope to video record the star for a few seconds in breaks in the clouds; click here for details.

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European Symposium on Occultation Projects 2004 - updated 2004 Oct. 18

Click here for information about ESOP 2004 in late Aug. in Paris. The site now includes presentation files for many of the presentations and also has a link to the official ESOP 2004 group photo. ESOP 2004 rivals this year's good IOTA meeting. I found that it was best viewed with Netscape; many of the titles and lines were truncated when I viewed it with Internet Explorer.

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1.5 Chords Video Recorded for Ute Oct. 6 in North Carolina - updated 2004 November 10

Unattended remote station recorded the reappearance

This is my second success at running two widely-separated stations that both recorded an asteroidal occultation. Roger Venable also ran two stations in Florida, but both of them had a miss because the path shifted about 1/3rd path-width north. Read the details of my adventure with this in the Outer Banks here.

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Occultations, Grazes, & Lunar Meteors during the Oct. 27/28th Total Lunar Eclipse - updated 2004 Nov. 8

Occultations (total and grazing) of many stars occurred during the total lunar eclipse of October 28 (UT) for observers in most of the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Read about the opportunities here, including maps and tables of grazing occultations of stars brighter than mag. 10.1. It was mostly cloudy so no video observations were obtained in Maryland, but Guy Nason obtained a video recording of all of totality from Ontario. He didn't notice any impact flashes at the time, but is slowly reviewing the tape more carefully.

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Probable Rosa Graze Seen in Baja - updated 2004 October 4

The path apparently shifted about 60 km south

Kerry Coughlin timed two occultations of the target star from a location 20 km southeast of the predicted central line, but observers near and north of the central line, including two stations that I ran near Raleigh, NC, had no occultation of the star. Read the details, including how I drove through the remnants of Jeanne to get clear sky and found the 11th-mag. target in bright moonlight here.

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360 Toutatis Occultations during September - updated 2004 September 28

"Toutatis ran right over the star!"

Three very close appulses were observed, but we could not marshall forces to set up a fence of observers to bracket the narrow path and its small uncertainty zone, so as far as we can tell now, no occultation was seen (there could be an actual occultation dip in my video recording of one appulse). There are lots of occultations in the southern hemisphere during the closest approach tonight, but unfortunately there are no predictions for them. Read details of these events here, including my account of an expedition to New Jersey and predictions for past events.

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First daylight asteroidal occultation observed at Pic du Midi on Sept. 6 - new 2004 Sept. 7

An occultation of the 3rd-mag. primary of Sabik (eta Ophiuchi) by the asteroid (287) Nephthys was recorded yesterday afternoon at Pic du Midi; read the report here.

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Occultation by (107) Camilla timed from 3 stations on Sept. 5 - new 2004 Sept. 8

An occultation of 11.8-mag. TYC 5244-00017-1 was video recorded from three stations on September 5. The observations (in Occult .OBS file format) by Randy Peterson (sta. 1), Paul Maley (sta. 2), and Scott Donnell (sta. 4) are here, and a sky-plane view also showing Steve Preston's prediction point ("sta." 3; the shadow shifted north about 0.2 path-widths) and the fitted ellipse with axes 267 and 138 km. A few other observers far from the path, especially in California, monitored the star for a possible occultation by Camilla's known satellite, but they all had no occultation of the star.

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2004 IOTA Meeting in Calif. July 2 & 3 - updated 2004 Sept. 7

Nearly final information about the 5 asteroidal occultations observed June 30 - July 6 now here

This year's IOTA meeting held at the Lewis Center in Apple Valley, California on July 2-3 was a huge success. Four of the five asteroidal occultations during the 7 days surrounding the meeting dates were successfully observed, with nearly final results given here. This also includes the meeting agenda, including links and Power Point (or Word, etc.) files for most of the presentations, and the meeting minutes.

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The Latest Occultation Observing and Results Presentations - new 2004 Aug. 24

On August 20 and 21, I gave two talks at the large Starfest 2004 star party in Ontario. My Power Point presentations for these are below.

Observing Occultations, a 15.6-megabyte file that describes occultations and methods to observe them, including visual and video techniques, and new information on how to set up to observe asteroidal occultations with remote video systems.

Exploring the Cosmos with Occultations, an 8.0-megabyte file that describes describing the latest results from occultations (especially asteroidal occultations), as well as giving some prediction information.

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Spectacular crescent-Moon occultation of Jupiter in N. America on December 7 - new 2004 Aug. 24

Walter Morgan's detailed maps of the southern-limit partial occultation zones in Texas and s. Florida are here

The crescent Moon will occult Jupiter for most of North America before sunrise Tuesday morning, December 7th; the dark-side reappearance will be a spectacular naked-eye event, and occultations of three of the Galilean satellites can also be seen with good binoculars and small telescopes. A world map of the region of visibility, a map showing the southern partial occultation zone from n. Mexico to Dominican Republic, and local-time predictions of the disappearance and reappearance for hundreds of North American cities and towns can be found here on IOTA's Web site. Remember that Jupiter's disk is so large that it will take at least a minute for the Moon's edge to cover or uncover it for most locations, and the times are given for the center of Jupiter's disk, so you need to start watching at least a minute before the predicted times. The durations become much longer close to the southern limit, so observers within 100 miles or so north of the southern limit can have event durations even longer than 5 minutes. Even the Galilean satellite events will last from 1 to 3 or more seconds. Walter Morgan has generated some fairly detailed maps showing the partial occultation paths at the southern limits in Texas and Florida shown and described in his Word file here.

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Aug. 21st Occultation by the small asteroid (1903) Adzhimushkaj observed from California - new 2004 Aug. 24

The occultation of a 9.7-mag. star by (1903) Adzhimushkaj was observed by Ed Morana and Richard Nolthenius in California. See the results here.

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June 24th Occultation by (302) Clarissa timed from 4 stations in New York and Conn. - updated 2004 Aug. 6

Clarissa larger than expected & may have a satellite

The occultation of 9.6-mag. SAO 118999 by (302) Clarissa was video recorded by Michael Richmond in Rochester, NY; Phil Dombrowski in Glastonbury, CT; Frank Suits in Garrison, NY; and by me from a site on the south side of Walden, NY. See the preliminary results here. Recently, Frank Anet performed a careful analysis of Phil Dombrowski's secondary extinction which casts some doubt on that event, mainly because Phil had to use a small portable telescope rather than his obstructed fixed main telescope so that the star was quite faint in the video and was not present in some of the other frames as well. But Phil saw the event in real time, which is often better than the recording, and it appeared quick but clear to him at the time.

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Recent Asteroidal Occ'n Observations - updated 2004 August 24

4 Asteroidal Occultations & the IOTA meeting in early July

April 18th Observations show that (772) Tanete may have a large satellite

Good Alphonsina and Bertholda occultations observed in Europe

The occultation of 8.6-mag. SAO 144929 by the 146-km P-class asteroid 420 Bertholda was recorded by observers at over 70 separate stations in Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Portugal last August 26th to make it the 2nd most successfully-observed asteroidal occultation to date, replacing 2002 September's Tercidina event in that position. Then on December 22nd, the occultation of 6.3-mag. SAO 40029 by the 57-km S-class asteroid 925 was observed from at least 20 separate stations in Poland, Germany, France, and Spain, with a few observers near the northern limit of the actual occultation path having 2 occultations by the peanut-shaped asteroid. Read about these, and about many other recently-observed events (actually, back to 2002 and earlier) here. The account also includes a Dec. 9th analysis of the July 18th 1263 Varsavia occultation. Also, there's a link to an impressive video of the Dec. 7th occultation by (757) Portlandia at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory where Ian Shelton recorded two disappearances of the star by the asteroid.

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Occultations by Pluto and Charon to 2020 - updated 2004 July 21

Click here for a list of occultations of UCAC2 stars that will be occulted by either Pluto or Charon (or by both) from 2004 to 2020, computed by David Herald with Occult using the latest ephemeris for Pluto, and orbital elements for Charon relative to Pluto. The occelmnt file that can be used to obtain details and maps of these events with the Occult program is here; it is a plain ASCII text file.

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Results of Past Mid-Atlantic Occultations - updated 2004 August 16

Click here for information about, and lists of, future asteroidal, lunar grazing, and total lunar occultations to Oct. 2004. Observations by past Mid- Atlantic expeditions are described here. Some of our local/regional asteroidal occultation results are copied also in the item devoted to observations of those events here.

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A Primer on Timing Occultations - updated 2002 Dec. 31

Click here for information on timing occultations, especially for those just getting started. Visual timing techniques are described, as well as information about getting started with video, which is easier than most realize. BUT since this was written, an IMPORTANT PROBLEM has been found with the alarms of the self-setting clocks; they seem to be purposely delayed; click here for more information. As described in the item, some tests and calibrations will be needed before we can rely on these clocks for timings accurate enough for occultation work, but with proper tests, it will probably be possible to make accurate timings with at least some models of these clocks.

Value of Lunar and Asteroidal Occultations - new here 2003 Jan. 6

Read about the value of lunar (total and grazing) occultation observations here and Paul Maley's good article on the value and practice of observing asteroidal occultations here. Paul's article gives much useful practical advice for video and visual observers.

How to use the IOTA Grazing Occultation Predictions - updated 2003 July 8

Click here for a limited update to Chapters 6 and 7 of the old IOTA Observer's Manual describing how to use the limit predictions and lunar profile predictions to set up graze expeditions. Recent examples of the predictions are included, along with the appropriate figures from the manual to illustrate the process. Now added is a .zip file containing the IOTA predictions for grazes in the northeastern USA (within 300 miles of Greenbelt, MD) during 2003 and a plotting scale for the DeLorme Maryland/Delaware and Virginia Atlas/Gazetteers.

Lunar Axis Angles and Watts Angles - new 2003 Jan. 14

Watts angles are used for the predicted lunar profiles for grazing occultations. The definitions of axis angle and Watts angle, their difference, and some references about them, including Watts charts, are described here.

Powering Video Cameras and other Video Tips - new 2003 May 23

Click here for advice on batteries that can be used to power the sensitive video cameras now being used to record many occultations. We strongly encourage video recording occultations, especially asteroidal occultations, to eliminate problems with visual reaction times that seriously limit the accuracy of the results that we can get from observations by the relatively small asteroidal occultations whose paths we can now predict rather accurately. Very sensitive relatively inexpensive cameras can now record at least as much as you can see in an eyepiece. The main IOTA Web site contains much useful information about video recording occultations, especially near the bottom in the "News of Interest" section, the items "A Light Weight Portable Video Setup by R. Nugent", "Important - The New Sharp Camcorders Don't Work for Us", and "Some Additional Information about Richard Nugent's System", along with the older but mostly still valid items, especially the first two, under the section "Use of Video & Photoelectric Equipment on Timing Events".

Aldebaran Grazing Occultation Movie - new 2003 June 16

A spectacular crescent-moon dark-limb grazing occultation of Aldebaran was video recorded by Vladimir Smelcer near Lodz, Poland; Vladimir travelled there from Valasske Mezirici, Czech Republic. Several events are shown during the first and last part of the graze; during the middle, not shown, the star remained behind the Moon.

first part of the graze

last part of the graze

Other IOTA items with asteroidal occultation movie - updated 2004 Aug. 24

Click here for the latest general article about asteroidal occultations, Power Point presentations about videotaped occultations (mainly asteroidal and lunar grazing), and a short mpeg movie file showing an asteroidal occultation. It now includes my Power Point presentations on observing occultations and on the latest results from occultations (especially asteroidal occultations) that I gave at Starfest 2004 on Aug. 20 and 21 in Ontario.

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Outline and plans to update the IOTA occultation manual - new 2003 Sept. 11

Richard Nugent is leading an effort to update the IOTA occultation manual. The plan, outline and some sections can be found on his Web site. Help is sought to complete this important project; you don't need to be a member of IOTA to contribute.

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Occultations of Nova Sgr 2004 - new 2004 March 31

The new nova will be occulted by the Moon several times the rest of this year

Nova Sagittarii 2004 will be occulted by the Moon for observers in China, Korea, and part of Russia on April 10 at 22h UT. Observers in other parts of the world will have a chance to observe occultations during the following months. Mitsuru Soma has posted a list of these events, including area-of-visibility maps, on a Japanese Web site. Although the information at the top is in Japanese, the table of events is in English, along with charts that show the regions of visibility that can be seen by clicking on "chart" on each line.

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Occultations and Grazes during the May 4th Total Lunar Eclipse - updated 2004 June 28

Rare Naked-Eye Occultation/Graze during the eclipse in southern Africa - Spectacular images obtained of alpha 1 & 2 Librae near the edge of the totally-eclipsed Moon & now account from Namibia

Movie files of similar graze recorded in Sudan in 1985 are here

Occultations (total and grazing) of many stars occurred during the total lunar eclipse of May 4 for observers throughout the Eastern Hemisphere and northeastern Brazil. Occultations of two 6th-mag. stars were visible from most of Europe, with grazes of both near the Pyrenees Mountains. But most remarkable was the occultation during totality of the 2.8-mag. star alpha 2 Librae = ZC 2118 = Zubenelgenubi for observers in southern Africa. Click here for more information about these events, including Francois du Toit's remarkable images from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, one of which was the Astronomy Picture of the Day on May 14; now Alfons Gabel's account of the expedition by several German observers for the graze in Namibia; a map by Eberhard Riedel showing the paths of all grazes of stars brighter than mag. 9.3 during the eclipse, and details about the alpha Librae grazes. Also here is a description of the previous eclipse graze of Zubenelgenubi observed a Meton cycle (19 years) ago, including my video tape of that event recorded in Sudan, and the next opportunities after this year.

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Venus Transit & Cicadas at Springs, Penn. - updated 2004 June 21

Click here for an account of a 6-person and 5-cicada expedition that I led to Springs, Pennsylvania to successfully observe the June 8th transit of Venus. Included are many interesting photoes of the expedition taken by Sandy Bumgarner and Becky Sidney (she got some good ones showing cicadas on or near the monitor showing the transit), and accounts and links to some other successful efforts in the Mid-Atlantic States.

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Observations of Titan & Saturn Occultations - updated 2003 December 2

10th-mag. Titan event recorded with 1m telescope at Merida, Venezuela

Nov. 15th Saturn occultation glimpsed through thin clouds at Mainz, Germany

An 8th-magnitude star was occulted by Titan early on November 14, visible from southern and central Africa, followed several hours later by an occultation of a 10th-magnitude star visible from North America and possibly from northern South America and westernmost Europe (in bright twilight). Read about these events here, including a summary of the exciting observations from southern Africa and other locations.

Double Star probed Titan from 2001 Dec. occ'n - updated 2003 Nov. 13

An occultation of both components of a 14th-mag. double star (but brighter in the infrared, or IR) was recorded in the IR with the 200-in. telescope at Mt. Palomar on 2001 December 20. The stars were dimmed but can be seen "walking" around opposite sides of Titan's well-resolved disk in interesting images and movies of the event made with adaptive optics that can be seen here; you need to click on "Additonal PALAO Results" on the left side. Maybe you don't have a 200-inch telescope, but this shows what might be accomplished with the occultation of tonight's much brighter stars with moderate-sized telescopes.

Good Occultations of 8th-mag. star by Saturn - updated 2003 Dec. 2

8.4-mag. SAO 78867 was occulted by Saturn and its rings, the latter providing interesting dimming phenomena of the star as different thicknesses of the rings pass over the star. The seeing was too poor to see the Nov. 15th occultation by Saturn from many locations, but a few did image the star through the inner C-ring - see some images here. Read Alfons Gaebel's account of the event here. For more information about that event, and a similar one that occurred the night of Nov. 24/25, see the November issue of Astronomy magazine.

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Two year-end grazes in southern California - updated 2004 Jan. 9

Dec. 26, Seal Beach to Rancho Cucumonga; Dec. 30, Bakersfield

I was in southern California Dec. 25 - 31, and while there I planned to try two grazing occultations:

DATE   Day  PST      Star    Mag  % alt  CA  Location

Dec 26 Fri 5:32pm SAO 164709 8.6 17+ 29 18S Seal Beach-s.Apple Valley
Dec 30 Tue 6:20pm ZC 157     7.3 56+ 58 19S s.&e. of Bakersfield

The times are the start of 7-min. observing periods for the grazes for locations within the paths shown by clicking on the locations, or in the Word file here. Skies were clear for the first one, successfully video recorded from 4 stations, listed from north to south across the profile:

3 D's & 3 R's, Joan, William, & Douglas Dunham, 5" SCT, star faint but clear
3 D's & 3 R's, David Dunham, 4" SCT, star faint but clear
6 D's and 6 R's, David Werner, 8" SCT, good recording
1 D and 1 R, Greg Lyzenga, 8" SCT, good recording

The weather was iffy for the 2nd graze so we cancelled the planned expedition for it. IR weather satellite images showed that the graze path was along a border between clear skies to the northwest and rather cloudy skies to the southeast (w. of Santa Barbara to s. of Bakersfield), so the graze might have been observed if we had tried it, but that's uncertain.

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Good Mid-Atlantic Aurora, Oct. 29 and 30 - new 2003 Nov. 3

For the first time since moving to Maryland in 1976, I saw a good display here of the aurora borealis. Click here for my account, and for some good images taken by others.

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ISS lunar and solar transits in DC - Baltimore area, Jan. 30/31 - updated 2004 Feb. 2

Click here for maps and details of a passage of the International Space Station (ISS) over the gibbous Moon Friday evening, January 30, and across the Sun early Saturday afternoon, January 31, visible from strips a few miles wide crossing the Baltimore - Washington areas. NOTE that a new prediction received Thurs. night (Jan. 29/30) shifted both paths about a mile farther west of the previous prediction that was used by John Brooks for his plots - details of the new update and observing plans can now be found at the link in the first sentence of this paragraph. Both events were observed, and I videorecorded the lunar transit from the parking lot of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Laurel.

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The Educational Value of Occultations - updated 2004 Jan. 9

Observations of Occultations of Stars by Asteroids and by the Moon teaches Astronomy and Discipline while Contributing to Astronomical Research

Here is a description of how occultations can promote education, an abstract for a presentation that I gave at an education session at the American Geophyical Union's meeting in San Francisco, California on December 8-12, 2003. I displayed a poster about this on Dec. 12, and gave a short introduction to it the morning of Dec. 11. When I can, I'll post some of the poster material here.

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Titania Occultation Aug. 1 recorded in Texas & Mexico - updated 2003 Aug. 6

The occultation was recorded by Paul Maley, Barbara Wilson, and others at the George Observatory west of Houston, TX, with a longer (near central) event recorded by Pedro Valdez Sada near Monterrey, Mexico, indicating about a half-path-width shift to the south from David Herald's nominal prediction. The event also occurred a few minutes later than predicted. Read more about the occultation here.

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Light Curves of Asteroids - new 2003 March 27

Mikko Kaasalainen in Helsinki plans to work with occultation and light curve data to determine the 3-dimensional sizes and shapes of asteroids along with their rotational properties. He has set up a good Web site that has links to other sites with much information about asteroid light curves and results obtained from them.

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List of Binary Asteroids - new 2002 Oct. 10

Denis Denisshenko at the Space Research Institute in Moscow has assembled a good list of binary asteroids discovered by various methods here.

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June 6th eta Leonis graze in Japan - updated 2003 July 8

A spectacular dark-limb crescent-Moon graze of 3.5-mag. eta Leonis was observed on June 6th from Japan. A couple of photoes and Dr. Mitsuru Soma's detailed reduction profile can be seen at this Japanese-language Web site. Here is another reduction profile of the event from Toshio Hirose's Web site. As far as I know, it is the best-observed grazing occultation so far in 2003.

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Transit of Mercury observed from s.w. Laurel, MD - updated 2003 May 9

Maryland was mostly blanketed with fog, but I found a location near the top of a hill above the fog. A little before 6:20 am EDT (10:20 UT), the Sun rose out of distant cirrus clouds and I was able to video record the transit from then until it ended at 6:34 am. The seeing was poor at the 5 deg. altitude at the end. Read more about it here, now with a fuzzy image that I obtained of the Sun and Mercury at only about 3 deg. altitude, as well as images of the telescope and observers, one of the few observations from North America. Also given are links to other sites that had much better views, including Ocean City, MD.

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IOTA meeting in Rocklin, California on July 18-19 - updated 2003 July 22

The 21st Annual meeting of the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) was held at Sierra College in Rocklin, California, northeast of Sacramento, on July 18-19, 2003. Read some about the very successful meeting here.

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Solar Eclipse Timings Wanted; Observations near the Limits of the Dec. 4th Eclipse - new 2002 Dec. 13

The International Occultation Timing Association is interested in analyzing all timed observations of 2nd and 3rd contact, and of Bailey's bead events, made from locations measured with GPS receivers, during the total solar eclipse on December 4th. Especially sought are video recordings showing Bailey's beads. Although observations near the limits are currently the most valuable, we are interested in knowing about timed observations from a variety of locations across the path of totality, even near the central line. While driving from the south limit to the north limit along the Stuart Highway in the Outback of South Australia west of Woomera, we passed a few hundred observers set up at scores of locations across the eclipse path, many with quite sophisticated equipment, starting only a couple of kilometers north of the southern limit, and having a good distribution across the path, not just concentrated near the center. For now, do not send us your video tapes, but do send me a message with your observing location and a description of your observations, and the equipment that you used to observe the eclipse; we will later decide which observations are most valuable for analysis and then ask for further information, including, when appropriate, copies of video tapes.

Reports from near the Limits of the Dec. 4th Eclipse - new 2002 Dec. 13

Here is a list of reports from locations near the limits of the eclipse that I know about, with some of the messages copied below; the positions were measured with GPS receivers, and timings were made either with the STVastro system or with WWVH time signals that were received clearly:

Northern Limit:
David and William Dunham near Coondambo near the Stuart Highway
     in South Australia

Southern Limit:
Hans-Joachim Bode in Botswana
Roger Venable near the Stuart Highway in South Australia
David Herald and Joan Dunham near Wirraminna, west of Lake Hart
     near the Stuart Highway in South Australia
Phil Schupp with the Eclipse Edge expedition, led by Tom
     Van Flandern, near Leigh Creek, South Australia, and
     also Ron Abileah near the same location

Click here to read the interesting accounts of the observers listed above.

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Occultation by Saturn's Satellite Tethys, 2002 Dec. 15, 19h UT - updated 2002 Dec. 20

The Saturnian satellite III (TETHYS) occulted a 9.1 magnitude TYC-2 star for up to 40 seconds on Dec. 15. It was timed from at least 5 stations in Japan, and from one each in Poland and Belarus, but no occultation was observed from Pic du Midi and Iberia, indicating that the path was more than a quarter of a path-width north of Bruno Sicardy's predicted path (that is, perhaps halfway between Sicardy's and Manek's predictions). Extensive cloudcover prevented observation from central and northwestern Europe and the U.K., where the path must have passed. Chord and map plots have been prepared and will be provided here later. Read prediction details about this important interesting occultation here as provided mainly by Jean Lecacheux of Paris Observatory.

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Inexpensive new sensitive Supercircuits videocamera - Updated 2002 May 30

I used the $l30 camera to record 3 asteroidal occultations in May

The PC164C videocamera for $130 announced by Supercircuits rivals the Watec 902H camera and opens the way for widespread videorecording of the fainter asteroidal and lunar occultations. Supercircuits does not sell a PAL version of the PC164C, but there is a similar (PAL) camera sold by a British company for 69 pounds. I used my PC164C with 8-inch SCT's to videorecord the following asteroidal occultations this month; more about them will be posted later:

 2002                Star
 Date     Asteroid   mag.  Location

May  5   28 Bellona  10.3  north of Altoona, Pennsylvania
May 10  638 Moira    11.2  west of Lonepine, California
May 25  596 Scheila   9.9  Bodie Island, North Carolina

The camera recorded a 9th-mag. grazing occultation on Jan. 19

Click here for an account of how I used the amazing PC164C to easily videorecord a grazing occultation of a 9th-magnitude star on 2002 January 18 (19th UT). Some images of that graze from the videotape have been added.

The PC164C also recorded a 9th-mag. graze UNATTENDED on Feb. 5

The grazing occultation near Fredericksburg, Virginia was recorded from three locations by two observers, Robert Stewart and me. Robert had problems with wind buffeting his 5-inch refractor, but he recorded at least one long occultation of the star with his PC-164C camera. I recorded at least 4 occultations of the star with my PC-164C on an 8- inch SCT running by itself while I recorded 3 occultations of the star at another location about 250m away with a Watec 902H camera. The observation showed that these amazing cameras also work well when the Moon is a fat crescent (41% sunlit); read more here.

3rd faint success - the PC-164C recorded a 9.6-mag. graze on Feb. 15/16

This time the graze was recorded at two sites at Williamsville, Delaware, near Milford. It was pretty, with the graze 15 deg. on the dark side of the 18% sunlit Moon; Tycho and maria were prominent in Earthshine. Clouds moved in about 1.5 hours later; they had already covered the Washington, DC area about 120 km to the west. The star was half a magnitude fainter than the previous two "faint-graze" successes. Read more here.

Manual Gain Control for the PC-33C by R. Frenzel - new 2002 April 12

Robert Frenzel tells and illustrates how he modified his Supercircuits PC-33C camera to add manual gain control here. This is the less sensitive color version of the PC-23C camera; probably similar modifications could be made to the PC-23C. But the PC-164C camera is made by another manufacturer in another country, so any modification for it would probably be quite different, if even possible. The work takes some care and skill, especially with such small parts. He has also modified a PC-164C camera to add manual gain control.

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Czech Unattended Video records kappa Gem Graze - New 2002 Oct. 2

My message to Jan Manek in the Czech Republic:

    Congratulations on your success with the graze of kappa 
Geminorum, and for proving that others, even on other continents, 
can obtain data from remote video stations.  I find it very 
rewarding to obtain additional observations that way.
    David    

At 12:57 AM 10/2/2002 +0200, you wrote:
Last Sunday (September 29/30) I prepared a small expedition near 
Prague for the graze of 3.6 mag. kappa Gem, which was succesfully 
observed the next night (Sep 30/Oct 1). I had myself 14 contacts 
(maybe more, still have to evaluate part of the audio tape) visually 
and another ~10 from unattended video.  With 4 people we had ~46 
contacts.  Another group of 15 observers headed by Karel Halir was 
also successful near Pilsen. 

Eberhard Bredner also reports that the graze was successfully 
recorded from two stations near Nueremburg, Germany.  A plot of the 
graze path starting in southern France, then crossing Switzerland, 
s. Germany, w. Czech Rep., Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and n.w. 
Russia is on p. 110 of the January 2002 issue of Sky and Telescope.

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tau 2 Aquarii graze well-observed - updated 2002 Feb. 8

Remote videocameras record at least half the data at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The event was also recorded well with a large expedition in Georgia. Click here for more information, including a reduction profile of all of the observations.

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The December 14th Annular Solar Eclipse in Costa Rica

Updated 2001 December 18. Unfortunately, we obtained no Bailey's bead observations at our 3 northern-limit sites in and near Santa Rosa park due to clouds. Ironically, it was clear enough to see annularity at Liberia, 30 km to the south, where our hotel was. It is more unfortunate because bead observations were recorded at and near the southern limit by Paul Maley, Frank Anet, and others. Paul observed from almost 7 km inside the path of annularity, so we will reduce his observations to see how accurately the southern limit can be determined from observations from such a location not at but near the limit. Prediction information is below; this will be removed from this site early in 2002. Plans to Observe the Eclipse at the Limits - updated 2001 Dec. 11. Much useful information about observing and recording annular and total eclipses by Paul Maley is here. A shaded relief map showing major topographic features (volcanoes, etc.) in northern and western Costa Rica (and southern Nicaragua) is here. Click here for detailed limit data for the annular eclipse across Central America.

Watch Out for North Shifts of S. Limit Grazing Occultations

Dec. 16 & 22 Obs. shows 0.8" N. Shift from ACLPPP - UPDATED 2001 Jan. 5 However, now (2002 Feb.) you do not need to worry about these shifts since they are already taken into account by the latest (2002 January) version of the ACLPPP IOTA lunar graze profile program.

IOTA's Information about the 2000 Dec. 25 Partial Solar Eclipse

Predictions and Video Observation Plans - Updated 2000 Dec. 22

The 2000 November 20th appulse of Tejat by 752 Sulamitis

The disappointing results are described here; last update 2000 Dec. 1

James W. Dunham, 1908 - 2000 - updated 2000 Dec. 14

Last updated 2008 April 23, 23h UT Jose Guzman, J.H.U./A.P.L. Phone: 240-228-0241 e-mail: jose.guzman@jhuapl.edu and David Dunham, President, I.O.T.A. Phone: home 301-474-4722 office 240-228-5609 car 301-526-5590 APL-Tue/Wed 240-228-5609 e-mail: dunham@starpower.net (home) and david.dunham@kinetx.com (office)