100-km Asteroid (345) Tercidina Occ'n of 8.9-mag. SAO 145911, Nov. 14 pm, n. Calif. to n. Missouri

The star, near the water jug in Aquarius and only 10' from a 7.5-mag. star, should be easy to find

The 3rd-best-observed asteroidal occultation was by Tercidina, observed in Europe from over 70 stations on 2002 Sept. 17

Updated: 2005 Nov. 12

     On Monday night, November 14/15, the 100-km asteroid
345 Tercidina will occult 8.9-mag. SAO 145911 = TYC 5227-00241-1 
in Aquarius for observers in a path stretching from northern 
California to northern Missouri, including Sacramento, CA; 
and Denver, CO; near the path edges are Reno, NV; Provo, UT; 
Colorado Springs, CO; Lincoln, NE; and St. Joseph, MO.

     Accuweather's medium-range forecast predicts scattered
cirrus across northern Calif. and Nevada, with lower clouds,
around 60% or more, farther east, Utah to Kansas City.

     More information about this outstanding event will be given 
here later.  In the meantime, extensive prediction information can 
be found  on Steve Preston's Web site
(which includes finder charts of different scales locating the target
star) and also on Derek Breit's Web site 
that includes detailed path maps and a list of many stations (cities 
& observatories) from which the occultation might be observed, 
giving for each the predicted time, the probability for having an 
occultation, and the altitude of the target star, which gets very 
low in the west for observers in Missouri and Iowa. 
If your site is not in that list, send your coordinates,
or address, to Derek Breit (e-mail breit_ideas@hotmail.com ), 
and to me, and we will add you to the station list.             

     Information about the 2002 Sept. 17th occultation by Tercidina, 
observed so well in Europe, can be found here.

     You can see the path superimposed on very detailed maps and 
satellite imagery on Charlie Ridgway's Web site.  For general 
information about his site, click here, 
while for the map specifically for the Doris occultation,
click here.  On this site, you can enter a
distance from the central line in km in a special "offset" box (just 
write over the default value of 1000 given there) and it will plot 
gray lines at that distance north and south of the central line.

     SAO 145911 is at J2000 RA 22h 09m 58.6s, Dec -04 deg. 08' 12", 
about 5 deg. southwest of the water jug in Aquarius and only 10' 
northwest of a 7.5-mag. star.  If an occultation occurs, there will 
be a 4-mag. drop to the 13th-mag. of Tercidina for up to 7 seconds. 

     Click here for information about how to time asteroidal 
occultations.

     Walter Morgan is trying to coordinate observations of the 
occultation across northern California; read his call for
observations here.

David Dunham, e-mail home dunham@starpower.net ,
office david.dunham@jhuapl.edu