Occultation of iota Cancri by (411) Xanthe Tues. evening, April 17/18 - Updated 2007 April 19, 22h UT
This was the brightest star occulted by a sizeable asteroid in North America this year
The occultation was well-observed across northern Florida, with crucial observations from Georgia as well
Positive observations were obtained from 11 sites spread well across the actual path
The path shifted at least 18 km north of the prediction and the video records show gradual events due to the angular diameter of the star
The list of planned observations is below, with preliminary results when they are available. Pre-event predictions and plans are here. This is preliminary; sorry if I don't have your information, or have it incorrectly. For several, click on the name for more information. I think a few observers moved from where they had planned to observe, so some of the distances from the predicted center below may be wrong. Besides the north shift of probably about 20km, the event occurred about 0.2 min. early. If "video" below is in all caps - VIDEO - then a link to a clip of the video showing the occultation is included. My office here is going to be moved Friday, so I might not be able to update this again until next week. Occultation of HIP 43103 (iota Cnc) by 411 Xanthe on 2007 Apr 18 Distance from center of predicted occultation path - in km km Observer and Location, Result (dur. = occultation duration) 115 Tuscaloosa AL William Keel, no occultation 91 ** Predicted Northern limit plus 1-Sigma ** 65 Georgia R. Venable remote, recorded wrong star 55 Georgia Roger Venable, visual, dur. 2-3s 43 Valdosta GA M. Leake & K. Culpepper, video, dur. 8s 38 *** Predicted Northern limit *** 33 Osceola Nat'l Forest, FL NEFAS Eric Gray, video 31 Osceola Nat'l Forest, FL site 3 Mike Toomey, dur. 8s 12 Green Cove Spgs FL Paul Maley - video, dur. 8s 9 Stargate Obs Live Oak FL Howard Cohen, video, dur. 8s 5 e. of Live Oak Francisco Reyes, video, dur. 8s 0 **** Predicted Centre Line **** -1 Lake City FL Tandy Carter - technical problems, no obs. -1 Live Oak FL Bill Helms, visual, dur. 8s -13 Keystone Hgts FL C Broward & B Connell, video, dur. 6s -22 Ormond Beach FL Richard Nugent, VIDEO, dur. 2s -23 n. of Gainesville FL Don Loftus, VIDEO, dur. 2s -31 Daytona Beach, FL Richard Bookamer, no occultation -36 s. of Gainesville FL Scott McCartney, no occultation -38 *** Predicted Southern limit *** -50 e. of Deltona FL David Dunham - video, no occultation -91 ** Predicted Southern limit plus 1-Sigma ** -143 ** Predicted Southern limit plus 2-Sigma ** Craig MacDougal, Tampa, FL - no occultation Thanks to all who made this event such a great success, it's clear that we'll be able to determine a good size and shape of Xanthe's profile from these observations. David Dunham, 2007 April 19, 6 pm EDT Phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell 301-526-5590 e-mail david.dunham@jhuapl.edu home e-mail: dunham@starpower.net .