Occultation by 275 Sapientia on 2003 Feb. 8

New: 2003 November 10

     On 2003 February 8, Roger Venable travelled from his home in 
Georgia to Pelham, NC, where he video recorded a possible 
occultation of 11.4-mag. TAC +17 deg. 3131 by the asteroid (275) 
Sapientia.  It was partly cloudy and he recorded two substantial 
dimmings of the star, one of which he thought was the real 
occultation, but he was not completely sure of that.  Recently, I 
learned of another observation of this occultation, by Dennis Rowley 
from Chesapeake, VA - see his message below.  His visual chord lines 
up well with Venable's first dimming and we have been able to fit a 
99-km circle to the observations here, where 1 is Venable's 
first dimming, 2 is his second, and 3 is Rowley's chord.
________________________________

From: "Dennis Rowley" 
To: "David Dunham" 
Subject: Re: Alfaterna & Sapientia occultations
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 21:49:10 -0500

ok - this is from my palm pilot and one thing i don't have is the 
USGS chart number for North Henderson, NC: 

EVENT: Occultation of TAC +17#03131 by 275 Sapientia on 08 Feb, 2003 at
0627 - 0647 UT.
Observation site: North Henderson, NC
Lat:  36 deg 21 min 35.7 sec N
Long: 78 deg 22 min 06.8 sec W
Elev. 500 feet
(from USGS Map of North Henderson, NC area)
Equipment: Celestron C-8 @F/6.3; 10.5 mm Orion Megavista eyepiece (approx
120x) ; no clockdrive
Zenith Transoceanic Shortwave Radio @10.0 MHz (WWV)
Reception: Good
Mini-recorder.
Local sky conditions:
Seeing: 5/5
Transparency: 5/5
(note - completely overcast along Route 58 until west of Emporia)

RESULTS:
Positive occultation with 275 Sapientia visible during occultation, 
mag. drop approx. 1.0.
Occultation start: 06:35:05.9 UT
Occultation end :  06:35:15.6 UT
Personal equation: 0.3 sec, included in above times.
(My normal p.e. is somewhat shorter, but this occultation is not
subjectively the same as viewing a star that completely disappears, 
as the asteroid was visible throughout the event.)

Dennis Rowley