Plans for the Occultation of 6.7-mag. SAO 115966 by (219) Thusnelda on 2007 December 18 - New 2007 Dec. 21, 0h UT
Bright trans-Atlantic occultation prediced for s. Europe, s. Florida, and Mexico
Hot links for most of the Web sites mentioned below are here. From: David Dunham [dunham@starpower.net] Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 4:16 AM Subject: [PLANOCCULT] Need your help with occultation of 6.7-mag. SAO 115966 by (219) Thusnelda Mon. night; 1st stations list Please help us measure the size and shape of (219) Thusnelda by observing its occultation of 6.7-mag. SAO 115966 (HIP 38140) a few degrees southeast of Procyon; the star is at J2000 RA 7h 48m 59.0s, Dec +4 deg. 20' 01". Besides watching the star with steadily-held binoculars or a telescope, please try to time it with whatever timing methods you can, as described at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/timng920.htm and the links given there. Please spread word of this good event to others; best would be to distribute this to local astronomical society list servers so that most of their members can be reached. Note that in Florida the occultation will occur just after midnight Monday night/Tues. am, Dec. 17/18, at 12:17 am EST. Although the occultation path is predicted to cross southern Florida, as well as Greece (Athens in the path), Italy (Messina and Palermo), Spain (Calar Alto Obs. & Sevilla), and Mexico (Zacatecas), observers throughout Florida are encouraged to monitor the bright star since a satellite of Thusnelda could occult the star up to 10 path-widths (or almost 500 km) from the predicted central line, including throughout Florida. A link to Steve Preston's page for the occultation, with finder charts, etc., and other links and information is on my asteroidal occultation Web page at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/mp.htm . The Accuweather forecast is very favorable for s. Florida, and the Astro Meteo forecast for 0h UT Dec. 18 UT (5h before the event) shows that it will be clear across virtually all of Florida, with light wind from the north that should give a little drier conditions than usual. Please let me know your plans to observe this event, if you haven't already done so; we especially need to know from where fixed-site observers will be trying this good event. We want to know who might be observing this from Europe and Mexico, as well as Florida. We want to optimize coverage of this event, so that the several mobile stations that we plan to deploy won't duplicate your observation, so your plans are important. Later today, I'll distribute an update of the list given below based on further e-mail messages that I receive. My flight is scheduled to arrive at West Palm Beach at 2:25 pm Monday. Those who want to work with me could meet me at some place near the airport about an hour later. Please provide your cell phone number, if you haven't already, to facilitate meeting. Since the event doesn't occur until 12:17 am EST, there's no rush to meet, and those with day jobs can just leave to meet me after dinner, finding out where I am by cell phone at the time. I will be busy the whole time, wanting to get away from the coast before rush hour traffic builds up too much, and start finding sites and setting up as many as 5 stations as soon as it gets dark. I plan to deploy my stations mainly near US 27; it is quite unlikely that it will be necessary to go farther west for better conditions as I mentioned previously. In the list below, observers who are known to plan to try to observe this event, as well as several potential observers, are given from north to south in distance from Steve Preston's predicted central line. The probability of an occultation for the location is given, followed by the observer and/or location. For observers in our station database, the predicted time of the occultation is given for the location, as well as the altitudes of the target star and the Sun at the time of the occultation. Codes are given between the distance and probability columns indicating how committed observers plan to time the event, with * for a fixed-site visual observer, V for a fixed-site video or CCD observer, m for a mobile visual observer, M for a mobile visual observer, V for a mobile video observer, and ? indicating a location from which observations would be valuable, but from which no response has been received, so for now we can't count on an observation from there (but since an observation might be made, mobile observers should try to avoid an exact duplicate observation). Occultation of SAO 115966 = HIP 38140 by 219 Thusnelda on 2007 Dec 18 (UT) - prediction updated by S. Preston Dec. 6 Uncertainty in time = +/- 3 secs Distance (+ north of center, - south of center) from center, in Prob. U.T. Star Sun km % Observer and/or location 5h + Alt Alt m s o o 72 2 ** Path limit plus 2-Sigma ** 70 ? 3 J75 OAM Observatory, La Sagra 6 42 38 -25 63 5 J78 Murcia 6 34 37 -24 55 ? 10 J70 Obs. Astronomico Vega del T 6 34 37 -24 47 16 ** Path limit plus 1-Sigma ** 47 ? 16 Cape Coral FL - Bob Konior 17 59 51 -86 44 19 J76 La Murta 6 34 37 -24 44 19 J72 Valle del Sol 6 33 37 -24 42 21 Izmir, Turkey 4 27 16 -4 40 V 23 LABELLE FL MRAZ~FRANK J 17 55 51 -86 35 ? 30 837 Jupiter FL 17 45 52 -86 31 M 47 D. Dunham 28 ? 39 965 Observacao Astronomica no A 7 20 43 -30 23 47 *** Predicted Northern Path limit *** 22 M 47 D. Dunham remote 18 52 FT MYERS FL DAVID B. WALLACE 18 0 51 -86 17 54 944 Observatorio Geminis, Dos H 7 2 41 -28 15 55 H72 Evelyn L. Egan Observatory, 17 59 51 -86 13 M 57 Tom Campbell, FL 10 ? 60 535 Palermo 5 16 27 -14 8 * 61 Palm Bch FL Bush & Fredrickson 17 44 53 -86 4 M 62 Paul Maley, FL 1 * 64 Tom Sarko, Lake Worth, FL 0 64 **** Predicted Central Line **** -0 * 64 Bill Bucklew, Lake Worth, FL -4 * 62 Jim Kimball, Lake Worth, FL -5 * 62 Jay Albert, Lake Worth, FL -6 M 61 Scott Degenhardt, FL -7 * 61 Dan Boyar, Boynton Beach, FL -10 M 59 Scott Degenhardt, FL remote #2 -11 59 Caminiti,FurciSiculo IT 5 6 26 -12 -12 ? 58 066 Athens 4 35 19 -6 -13 ? 57 fe KryonerionObsy GR 4 39 20 -7 -14 M 57 Harold Povenmire - Dunham station -14 ? 57 493 Calar Alto Spain 6 40 39 -25 -18 M 52 Scott Degenhardt, FL remote #1 -22 47 J79 Observatorio Calarreona, Ag 6 33 38 -24 -23 47 *** Predicted Southern Path limit *** -25 ? 44 Granada, Spain 6 45 39 -26 -25 ? 43 J86 Sierra Nevada Observatory 6 45 39 -26 -27 M 40 Tom Fly - Dunham station -33 ? 32 452 Big Cypress Observatory 17 53 52 -87 -36 M 29 Sruti Sathyanadan - Dunham station -46 V?17 SFAA Observatory - probable, position approximate -47 16 ** Path limit plus 1-Sigma ** -48 15 559 Serra La Nave 5 7 26 -12 -57 ? 8 H77 Buehler Observatory 17 48 53 -87 -61 ? 6 156 Catania Astrophysical Obser 5 6 26 -12 -63 5 212 Observatorio La Dehesilla 6 52 40 -27 -72 ? 2 983 San Fernando Spain 7 2 42 -28 -72 2 ** Path limit plus 2-Sigma ** -91 0 Miami FL 17 49 53 -87 -96 0 008 Algiers-Bouzareah 6 5 35 -21 -96 ? 0 H76 Oakridge Observatory, Miami 17 53 53 -87 -97 0 ** Path limit plus 3-Sigma ** David Dunham, cell phone 301-526-5590 2007 Dec. 16, 9h UT Text messaging (to my Blackberry) to my office e-mail, david.dunham@jhuapl.edu - just reply to this message until I leave home Monday morning about 9 am. ___________________________ From: David Dunham [dunham@starpower.net] Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 11:40 AM Subject: My last station update for Dec. 17/18 (219) Thusnelda occ'n of 6.7-mag. SAO 115966 This is a further minor update to the station list distributed last night. The weather forecast for southern Florida is still good, as described two messages ago. This will probably be my last general message; my flight is about half an hour late (I'm still at Baltimore airport) and expect to arrive at West Palm Beach airport about 3 pm, leaving there about 4 pm. After this, I won't be able to distribute to the full list, but can get text messages and phone calls on my Blackberry. In the list below, observers who are known to plan to try to observe this event, as well as several potential observers, are given from north to south in distance from Steve Preston's predicted central line. The probability of an occultation for the location is given, followed by the observer and/or location. For observers in our station database, the predicted time of the occultation is given for the location, as well as the altitudes of the target star and the Sun at the time of the occultation. Codes are given between the distance and probability columns indicating how committed observers plan to time the event, with * for a fixed-site visual observer, V for a fixed-site video or CCD observer, m for a mobile visual observer, M for a mobile visual observer, V for a mobile video observer. Occultation of SAO 115966 = HIP 38140 by 219 Thusnelda on 2007 Dec 18 (UT) - prediction updated by S. Preston Dec. 6 Uncertainty in time = +/- 3 secs Distance (+ north of center, - south of center) from center, in Prob. U.T. Star Sun km % Observer and/or location 5h + Alt Alt m s o o 72 2 ** Path limit plus 2-Sigma ** 47 16 ** Path limit plus 1-Sigma ** 47 * 16 Cape Coral FL - Bob Konior 17 59 51 -86 40 V 23 LABELLE FL MRAZ~FRANK J 17 55 51 -86 31 M 47 D. Dunham 23 47 *** Predicted Northern Path limit *** 22 M 47 D. Dunham remote 13 M 57 Tom Campbell, FL 10 * 60 Paul Maley visual US27 FL 8 * 61 Palm Bch FL Bush & Fredrickson 17 44 53 -86 4 M 62 Paul Maley, FL remote #2 - might be attended 1 * 64 Tom Sarko, Lake Worth, FL 0 64 **** Predicted Central Line **** -0 * 64 Bill Bucklew, Lake Worth, FL -4 * 62 Jim Kimball, Lake Worth, FL -5 * 62 Jay Albert, Lake Worth, FL -6 M 61 Scott Degenhardt, FL -7 * 61 Dan Boyar, Boynton Beach, FL -10 M 59 Scott Degenhardt, FL remote #2 -12 M 58 Paul Maley, FL remote #1 -14 M 57 Harold Povenmire - Dunham station -18 M 52 Scott Degenhardt, FL remote #1 -23 V 47 Fred Lehman, FL (help from Maley) -23 47 *** Predicted Southern Path limit *** -29 M 40 Dunham remote station, Fly/Sathyanadan will help -36 M 29 Sruti Sathyanadan & Tom Fly - Dunham station -47 * 17 Don Ellington at SFAA Observatory -47 16 ** Path limit plus 1-Sigma ** -72 2 ** Path limit plus 2-Sigma ** David Dunham, cell phone 301-526-5590 2007 Dec. 17, 16:30 UT Text messaging (to my Blackberry) to my office e-mail, david.dunham@jhuapl.edu, I won't be reachable at dunham@starpower.net until Tues. night. 11:30 am EST ___________________________ David Dunham, 2007 Dec. 20, 7 pm EST Phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell 301-526-5590 office e-mail david.dunham@jhuapl.edu with Blackberry for mobile use home e-mail: dunham@starpower.net .