Atalante Occultation March 1 timed in Santa Rosa, Calif.
New: 2003 March 3Message to Ed Morana, George Loyer, and Derek Breit in Calif.: I think it's possible that all 3 of you were right. The total spread between Ed and Derek was 172 km (relative to the path), and the predicted path width was 174 km. So if Atalante was just a little smaller than predicted, or an ellipse whose longer axis was approximately in the direction of motion, then the shadow could have slipped between both observers, and each of them were very close to the limits. If this is the case, then the center was probably close to 48S (that's a quite reasonable 1/3rd path-width south shift from Preston's prediction). Derek might have had a short event that he didn't notice due to the poorer conditions at Martinez. It's too bad that, with this coast-to-coast event, so many (everywhere from the Sierras to the Atlantic) were clouded out and we ended up with only one positive observation. U.T. is actual based on Loyer's observation (0.1 min. later than Preston's prediction, again well within what was expected). Dist. U.T. W.Long. Lat. City/ State/ Observer or km h m o o Town Country Observatory 23N 11 05.9 122.191 39.285 Maxwell, CA Ed Morana miss 73S 11 05.9 122.693 38.451 Santa Rosa, CA George Loyer 5.2sec. occ'n 119S 11 05.8 122.139 38.017 Martinez Derek Breit miss David Dunham