Piccolo Occ'n Observed in Maryland & Illinois, 2003 Apr. 28
Updated: 2003 November 10Four observers within the predicted path of the Piccolo occultation have reported an occultation, longer than the 2.7- seconds predicted for a central event. The path shifted a little north since observers a little north of the southern limit had no occultation. Several more miss observations were also reported recently. The path is now very tightly constrained with the miss observations, since the whole shadow was between Gus Johnson at 22 km N (thanks to Jared Zitwer for alerting him to watch for the event) and Wayne Warren at the Goddard observatory at 12 km S, showing that the path was less than 34 km wide. But it was predicted to be 36 km wide, and three of the durations were significantly longer than predicted using the same diameter. It is now clear that (1366) Piccolo is an elongated object, with the long dimension approximately in the direction of motion. Analysis of the observations, most given here, confirm this general impression, with a 39.7 km by 22.4 km ellipse fitting the observations well, as shown here. Harry Bates reports that his occultation started at about 5:03:40 UT, just a few seconds later than the predicted time for his location, 5:03.6, and Gary Frishkorn reports a D time of 5:03:38.7 UT (assumes 0.5 sec. reaction time). Raoul Behrend in Switzerland reports a preliminary lightcurve here. Dist. U.T. W.Long. Lat. h City/ State/ Observer or km C h m o o m Town Country Observatory 154N V no occultation recorded N. Canton OH Dick Emmons 129N -- Northern limit with unlikely but possible 2-sigma north shift 102N V no occultation recorded West Chester PA CLIFFORD J. BADER 99N V no occultation recorded Springfield, PA Don D'Egidio 73N -- Northern limit with very possible 1-sigma north shift 39N V no occultation recorded Marston MD MarstownOb,C.Roelle,12. 27N V no occultation recorded Eldersburg, MD George Sauter WAS vid 22N * no occultation seen Swanton, MD Gus Johnson 18N-- 5 3.7 77.000 39.306 0 *** predicted northern limit *** 11N * 3.5-second occ'n timed Champaign, IL Stuart Levy 8in. 10N * 3.5-second occ'n timed Dayton MD Gary Frishkorn 6N M 3.5-second occ'n recorded nBrookville, MD97 Gregg Rd. Harry Bates 2S C 2.7-sec. occ'n, CCD drift Laurel, MD David Skillman 12S V no occultation recorded Beltsville MD GoddardOpRF 16in. WHW 14S * no occultation seen BOWIE MD ANDREW W. SEACORD II 16S V no occultation recorded GREENBELT MD Joan Dunham 16S * no occ'n, trees interferred Bethesda MD JAY H. MILLER 18S-- 5 3.6 77.000 38.980 0 ** predicted southern limite ** 22S M no occultation recorded Woodmore, MD David Dunham 35S V no occultation Bob Bolster Haymarket VA Hopewell Obs., C14 52S * no occultation Joe Sedlak Dent&BOakRds, MD Cedarville St. Park 65S * no occultation seen Hughesville MD Capobianco, Michael 73S -- Southern limit with very possible 1-sigma south shift 100S * no occultation seen Greenbank WV Bob Anderson 102S * no occultation seen GREELEY CO RICHARD D. DIETZ 129S -- Southern limit with unlikely but possible 2-sigma south shift The list is repeated below with coordinates of the observers, when known. Dist. U.T. W.Long. Lat. h City/ State/ Observer or km C h m o o m Town Country Observatory 154N V 5 4.3 81.407 40.883 342 N. Canton OH Dick Emmons 102N 5 3.5 75.573 39.978 143 West Chester PA CLIFFORD J. BADER 99N V 5 3.5 75.349 39.927 0 Springfield, PA Don D'Egidio 39N V 5 3.7 77.081 39.505 235 Marston MD MarstownOb,C.Roelle,12. 27N 5 3.6 76.934 39.384 0 Eldersburg, MD George Sauter WAS vid 22N 5 4.0 79.298 39.509 771 Swanton, MD Gus Johnson 11N * 5 5.1 88.253 40.104 230 Champaign, IL Stuart Levy 8in. 10N 5 3.6 76.994 39.231 168 Dayton MD Gary Frishkorn 2S 5 3.6 76.842 39.115 0 Laurel, MD David Skillman 12S M 5 3.6 76.827 39.020 49 Beltsville MD GoddardOpRF 16in. WHW 14S * 5 3.6 76.773 38.999 0 BOWIE MD ANDREW W. SEACORD II 16S V 5 3.6 76.869 38.986 53 GREENBELT MD Joan Dunham 16S ? 5 3.6 77.126 39.003 79 BETHESDA MD JAY H. MILLER 35S 5 3.7 77.699 38.870 288 Haymarket VA Hopewell Obs., C14 52S m 5 3.6 76.834 38.658 0 Dent&BOakRds, MD Cedarville St. Park 65S * 5 3.6 76.783 38.533 0 Hughesville MD Capobianco, Michael 100S 5 4.0 79.824 38.442 0 Greenbank WV Bob Anderson 102S 5 7.4 104.704 40.4051459 GREELEY CO RICHARD D. DIETZ Many more potential stations are listed in my prediction message about the event here. David Dunham, 2003 April 29, 17h UT; updated 2003 Nov. 10