Occultation of SAO 79832 by (15) Eunomia Sat. am, Nov. 10 -
Updated 2007 Nov. 9, 19h UT
This is the best occultation in North America this month, with a
large asteroid and path from central Baja Calif. to s. Texas, Cuba,
& Puerto Rico, but the weather remains uncertain for s. Texas
These are just my messages about the occultation, with the most
recent ones on top.
_______________________________________
To: Maley, Paul D. (JSC-DO141)[USA]; David Dunham
Cc: TX Victoria Don Stockbauer; Joan ai-solutions; Joan comcast
Subject: Shifting my effort to Bilkis Sunday morning
Attachments: tr015585.ppt
Paul, and Joan and Don,
Besides (15) Eunomia, I'm also planning to observe the (585)
Bilkis occultation Sunday morning in southern Virginia. The new
forecasts I got are conflicting; you can see the transparencies in
the attached file for the times of both events, o.k. in southern
Texas (but clouds to east and in the San Antonio area) but poor in
Virginia for Bilkis (but good in n.e. NC). Accuweather predicts the
opposite, with 76% cloud cover in Laredo for Eunomia and only 30% in
Richmond for Bilkis. I talked to the national weather service
forecaster, and he said Bilkis has the better chance, with a
stronger clearing and drier conditions; he things there's a strong
possibility of fog and/or low clouds in s. Texas. He did say that
in Texas, it's best to go as far west as possible, it will be drier
away from the coast. So based on this, I'm going to cancel my
flight reservation to San Antonio and shift gears into planning for
the Bilkis event, for which I will set up at least 3 stations,
probably 4.
Don, good luck with whatever you can do; sorry we won't meet
tonight. If the weather looks good enough, you might try to go
southwest from Victoria to increase chances of seeing the event;
otherwise, you ought to at least try it from Victoria unless it
hopelessly socks in there, which it might.
Joan, I'll be around to help tonight and tomorrow morning/early
afternoon, but will want to leave late in the afternoon to maximize
resources for Bilkis (as long as the new weather still warrants it).
The current planned coverage for the event is as follows:
130km N *** predicted northern limit ***
120km N S. Aguirre, Sonora, Mexico [will probably be cloudy there]
114km N B.Tobias, Texas
91km N G.Glass, Texas
70km N R.Frankenberger, Texas
47km N P.Maley, Alice, Texas
27km N C.Allison, Texas
-5km S S.Campbell, Texas
-125km S R.Chavez, N.L., Mexico
-128km S P.Gabriel, McAllen, Texas
-130km S *** predicted southern limit ***
-150km S E.Castro, N.L.St.Univ.Obs., Mexico - not confirmed
-190km S P.Sada, Monterrey, N.L. - if his flights home are o.k.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: Maley, Paul D. (JSC-DO141)[USA] [mailto:paul.d.maley@nasa.gov]
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 11:09 AM
To: David Dunham
Cc: Dunham, David
Subject: RE: Update for Sat. morning's (15) Eunomia/SAO 79832 occultation
Yes, the weather is really messy right now. I have another back up
plan to set up on the Callaghan ranch. This location is north of
Laredo. If things go bad, I plan to set up at this spot which is
safe, and dark. It is at 44km N.
Paul
Paul D. Maley
United Space Alliance
DO14/MOD Design Integration Office
Constellation Program Support Team
NASA Johnson Space Center
2101 NASA Parkway
Houston, Texas 77058 USA
email: paul.d.maley@nasa.gov
tel. 281.2440208
fax. 281.2447622
_______________________________________
For the good occultation by (15) Eunomia on Saturday morning, Nov.
10, visible from central Baja, southern Sonora, n. Nuevo Leon, s.
Texas, w. Fla. Keys, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, the star is 9.5-mag.
SAO 79832, spectral type G0, about 3 deg. southeast of Pollux at
J2000 RA 7h 58m 55.5s, Dec +26 deg. 1' 52", with more information in
my previous message and on Steve Preston's Web page for the event.
The 2nd Astro Meteo forecast (32h prognosis) indicates that it will
be mostly clear, but with some clouds and high humidity in the area
of the path in southwestern Texas, in the area of I-35 and Route 16
south of San Antonio. Better transparency is indicated in northern
Nuevo Leon. Cloudier and foggier conditions are likely farther east
in southern Texas. Based on this, I plan to try the occultation, but
the forecast is marginal and if the next forecast worsens, I'll
cancel. The next forecast will be available about noon EST today,
Nov. 9.
Of course, the changing weather pattern will affect how we do.
After about 10:30 am EST, I won't have access to this e-mail
for sending messages to all observers on my current distribution,
but will have access to it this evening when I return home, probably
about 8 pm CST Friday. In the meantime, from now until then, a
better way to reach me will be by cell phone or my office e-mail
(see bottom) via my Blackberry.
The updated station list is above; I've added one station, and
removed mine.
Other stations, with the predicted time of closest approach,
altitudes of the star and Sun, and probability for seeing the
occultation, can be found in the "stations" item on the line for this
event on Derek Breit's global Web site. That also has the
interactive Google map for plotting the path, and desired offset
lines [especially useful for mobile observers to find suitable
observing sites], with overviews or zoomed in to great detail.
David Dunham, 2:40am EDT
Phone 301-526-5590 (cell)
office (Blackberry) e-mail david.dunham@jhuapl.edu
_______________________________________
From: David Dunham [dunham@starpower.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 3:23 AM
To: IOTAoccultations@egroups.com
Subject: Need help for the good Eunomia occultation Friday night/Sat am,
Nov. 9/10
We need your help to try to observe this good event, the last
occultation of a relatively bright (mag. 9.5) star by a large
asteroid predicted for populous parts of North America during the
rest of this year. We especially need help from observers just
outside the path, to have some coverage in case the actual path
passes north or south of the predicted one. On the north side,
those in and near Corpus Cristi, Victoria, and the s. side of San
Antonio, Texas; and in the Florida Keys can help with this. On the
south side, Monterrey, Mexico and vicinity is the key area, as well
as Brownsville/McAllen, TX. The path also passes over Cuba, and
observers in Puerto Rico also have a good chance for an occultation.
Subject: RE: Plans for the good Eunomia occultation Friday night
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 14:39:53 -0500
From: "Dunham, David"
To: "Maley, Paul D. (JSC-DO141)[USA]"
Paul,
I'm copying this to a few others; Salvador Aguirre said he's
going to be trying it at 117km n. in Sonora, unfortunately almost a
duplicate of B. Tobias. For the benefit of the others, the
prediction information (including path and star details, and charts
showing the target star at different scales) about this is here
- the best event by a large asteroid in the USA & Mexico until next
year. I'm copying this to Pedro Valdez Sada and a few others who
might try.
David
----------
From: Maley, Paul D. (JSC-DO141)[USA] [mailto:paul.d.maley@nasa.gov]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 1:44 PM
To: Dunham, David
Cc: WAiSeattle Steve Preston; TXiSan Antonio RickFrankenberger; MX
Hermosillo A Sanchez cosmos; MX La Paz Roc Fleishman;
BajaKerry@gmail.com; MX Hermosillo Salvador Aguirre; Dunham, David &
Joan, home Subject: RE: Plans for the good Eunomia occultation
Friday night
David, I have been working to organize this for a while. At present,
I have already confirmed observers located at the following sites:
[I've added to this others that I know who plan to try]
- the latest list is given at the top.
Other stations, with the predicted time of closest approach,
altitudes of the star and Sun, and probability for seeing the
occultation, can be found in the "stations" item on the line for
this event on Derek Breit's global Web site. That also has the
interactive Google map for plotting the path, and desired offset
lines [especially useful for mobile observers to find suitable
observing sites], with overviews or zoomed in to great detail.
Paul