Danae Occultation Tonight, Maryland to Toronto - New 2005 Oct. 5

We need your help to observe it

Forecast is good from central Penn. to Toronto

If Tammy stays far enough south, it might be clear in Maryland, DC, and northern Virginia

      We need your help to determine the size and shape of the
medium-sized (about 82 km) asteroid (61) Danae when it occults an
11.8-mag. star in Perseus tonight (actually, early Thursday
morning, Oct. 6) visible from the Toronto, Ontario region and
westernmost New York (including Buffalo, and possibly as far west as
Erie, PA) at 9:01 UT (5:01 am EDT); from the Mid-Atlantic region
(south-central Penn., Harrisburg-Lancaster-Gettysburg; central MD
including Baltimore & Washington DC; and e. VA); easternmost
Dominican Republic but small chance in Puerto Rico at 8:56 UT; and
over Venezuela a little east of Caracas at 8:55 UT.  Clear Sky Clock
is now forecasting clear sky across the Toronto and Buffalo regions, 
and across central Pennsylvania, and even around Frederick, MD, 
but quite cloudy over the rest of Maryland southward.  However, it 
has stayed mostly clear over Maryland, at least the northern half, 
this afternoon and early evening.  The clouds from tropical storm 
Tammy may stay far enough south that it could be clear across all of 
Maryland, the DC region, northern Virginia, and maybe a little 
farther south in Virginia, so observers in those areas should watch 
the weather (a good source is the IR satellite images at
the UCAR Web site) and try to observe if 
they can.  If you can try it, please let me know at 
dunham@starpower.net since if it is clear enough, I'll try to run 
one or two mobile stations to record it, and don't want to duplicate 
your chord.  I will distribute a message shortly after midnight 
saying if I am going to try to deploy or not; a new "Clear Sky 
Clock" forecast from astro meteo Canada will become available then, 
and the IR weather satellite loop will tell more by then, too.

      The path can be seen on Steve Preston's Web site
which also has detailed finder charts of different scales to help 
locate the target star.  If an occultation occurs, it will last up 
to 9 seconds with a 1-magnitude drop.  The star, UCAC2 46904980, is 
at J2000 RA 3h 36m 19.5s, Dec. +44 deg. 08' 00".  Very detailed maps 
of the path, or an offset distance in km that you can input, can be 
found on Charlie Ridgway's interactive Web page 
that links to the very detailed maps and satellite imagery of 
maps.google.com with overlays of the occultation paths.  
On his Web site, the central line is yellow, the northern and 
southern limits are blue, and the 1-sigma limits are 
purple/heliotrope.  The offset lines are gray. 

      For coverage planning purposes, an extensive list of stations
ordered by distance from the predicted central line may be posted
later, probably late this evening, on Derek Breit's Web site.
You can search for your, or your town's, name to see just when the 
occultation is predicted for your area (that time should be accurate 
to within 10 -15 seconds), and the predicted Sun and star altitudes 
at the time; the Moon will be below the horizon.  The star will be 
quite high, more than 50 deg. alt. for most observers, and twilight 
will be a factor only in northern Brazil.  If your location is not 
in the list, and you are within the 3-sigma limits of the 
occultation, send me information about your location and we'll add 
it. 
_____________________________________ 

David Dunham, 2005 Oct. 5, 8 pm EDT
phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell  301-526-5590