Asteroid (449) Hamburga Occultation Nov. 7 pm, Boston to L.A.
Thousands of telescopes are in this path, also over Flagstaff, Wichita, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Dayton, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Hartford
Astro Meteo forecasts mostly clear, but some thin clouds, Boston to St. Louis, and maybe s. Kansas & north-central New Mexico
Updated: 2005 Nov. 7, 20h UT (3 pm EST)
If you have an 8-inch or larger telescope, we need your help to observe the occultation of 11.9-mag. XZ 55443 = TYC 4665-00183-1 by the 86-km asteroid (449) Hamburga, visible this evening, Mon. Nov. 7, from a path passing over southern New England (Boston just north of center, New Haven at s. limit) at 3:39 UT (10:39 pm EST) and across the USA (see below for more path desciption) to Los Angeles, Calif. (and surrounding areas, Mt. Wilson & Ventura are inside the northern limit) at 3:49 UT (7:49 pm PST). For more information about this event, see Steve Preston's Web site that has detailed finder charts of different scales to easily locate the star. Note that all UT dates are Nov. 8 but the local date is always Monday evening, 2005 Nov. 7. The latest (starting 0h UT Nov. 7 UT) Astro Meteo forecast now shows that it will be mostly clear, but with some thin clouds, from Massachusetts to eastern Missouri (including St. Louis), and across most of southern Kansas, and probably also in north-central New Mexico. Heavier cloud cover is forecast across central & s.w. Missouri, and across southern California, Arizona, and n.w. New Mexico. It shows a patch of thin cloud over north-central Penn., but the current visual satellite image shows lots of thin cloud over western & southern Penn., extending west to the Mississippi River; hopefully, much of that will thin out, as the forecast shows, after sundown. I plan to drive to sites in central Penn. north of Harrisburg, but might switch to sites along I-81 towards Scranton, but couldn't get as far north with that more distant (for me) option. I'll decide when I see what the sky looks like at Harrisburg, and will check with the national weather service, but will not be able to send e-mail or update this web page; after this is posted, the only way to communicate with me will be by cell phone, 301-526-5590. If you can help us observe this occultation, either from your home or observatory, or as a mobile observer, please inform me and Derek Breit (e-mail breit_ideas@hotmail.com ). For coordinating coverage of this occultation, a list of stations sorted by distance in km from the predicted central line, can be found on Derek Breit's Web site. But he will remove that soon, so if that link doesn't work, view my copy of it here. You can search for your, or your town's or observatory's, name to see just when the occultation is predicted for your area (that time should be accurate to within 15 seconds or so), the probability for having an occultation there, and the predicted Sun and star altitudes at the time. If your station is not in the list, send me and/or Derek Breit your coordinates, or your street address, and we can add it. Derek will update his Web site with information indicating which distances from the central line (or "chords") will have observers trying to time the occultation. For information about timing occultations, click here. The currently-planned observations are listed below, with the first column giving the distance in km from the central line, positive north and negative south: +55 *** predicted northern limit *** +43 Laws Obs., U.Mo., Columbia, MO +37 Middlesex School Obs., Concord, MA +28 w Table Mtn. Obs., Calif. +23 w Karen Young, Wrightwood, CA +20 David Dunham in Penn. +16 w Steve Edberg, La Canada, CA +13 Clay Center Observatory, MA +13 Haldun Minali, South Boston, MA +9 Scott Tracy, North Granby, CT +8 w Tony Cook, Pasadena, CA 0 w Bob Jones, Running Springs, CA -1 ? Doug Kniffen, MO -12 w Rick Watson, Puente Hills, CA -24 Ken Coles, Indiana, PA -24 ? Meta, MO -24 Phil Dombrowski, Glastonbury, CT -33 Wayne Clark, St. Louis, MO -39 David Dunham remote in Penn. -45 William Ryan, Sapello River, NM -55 *** predicted southern limit *** -72 Charles Scovil, Stamford, CT -180w Sam Herchak, Mesa, AZ Derek Breit has included these, at least most of them, now in his station list on his Web site with link given above. In the list above, I've put a "w" for observers who will probably be clouded out, and "?" for those who may be clouded out (weather forecast for them "iffy"). I hope to try to observe the occultation from Pennsylvania, probably from two locations, but I won't select them until I see the next weather update & the weather satellite visible loops early in the afternoon. If I go, which is likely, I'll avoid the exact chords of the observers above, especially those who will likely not be clouded out, and will post what I plan to do here by about 3:30 pm EST (18:30 UT). I won't be able to send that by e-mail to most of you (I may be able to get a message about it out on the IOTAoccultations e-group list). 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 Hamburga 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. Type your distance number (in km) in the box just to the left of the "Plot Offsets" box at the bottom of the map. You need to type a number with no sign, then two gray lines are plotted; zoom in on the gray line northeast of the yellow central line if your distance is + and on the gray line southwest of the central line if your distance is -. You can move the map by grabbing it (left-clicking and holding down) and you can zoom in or out by left-clicking on the scale in the upper left part of the map (+ on that scale means "zoom in" for more detail over a smaller area). You can toggle between "map" (showing town and road names), "satellite" for satellite imagery, and "hybrid" for both together. The target star is in a rather sparse area of n.w. Cetus about 12 deg. southeast of the Pisces Circlet at J2000 RA 0h 26m 33.2s, Dec -1 deg. 37' 53"; The target star is 1.6 deg. due south of 6th-mag. 10 Ceti and is 0.4 deg. west of an 8th-mag. star, and is just 1.2' e.-n.e. of 10.5-mag. XZ 55441. An easy way to locate the target star is to set your telescope on 5.9-mag. 60 Aquarii, which is easy to find, being the brightest star just 1.5 deg. south of 4th-mag. eta Aquarii, the easternmost star in Aquarius' water jug. Set your telescope on 60 Aquarii 1 hour and 52.2 minutes before the time of the occultation predicted at your location; the target star will then appear 3.4' south of where 60 Aquarii was (you should put 60 Aquarii in the northern part of your field of view) when it will be occulted. Of course, you should also see 10.5-mag. XZ 55441 near the target star. If an occultation occurrs, it would last up to 14 seconds with a 2-magnitude drop. The path over New England and s. Calif. were described above, but the s. limit also nicks southernmost Nova Scotia at 3:38 UT (11:30 pm AST). After New England, at 3:40 UT (10:40 pm EST) the path crosses the Hudson River with Albany near the n. limit and the s. limit passing over Westchester County (but the path's location can be in error, so an occultation is possible from New York City; although light pollution will likely make it invisible there, Long Island has a chance, too) and Pennsylvania with Scranton, Sunbury, and State College in the path (but with some chance for an occultation as far from the path as Ithaca, NY; and Allentown & Harrisburg). At 3:41 UT, the path sweeps over Pittsburgh, PA and Columbus, OH (both about halfway from center to s. limit) with an event possible at Akron; and at 3:42 UT (10:42 pm EST or 9:42 pm CST), over Dayton, OH; Indianapolis, IN; & s.e. Illinois, with an event possible at Cincinnati and Bloomington; at 3:43 UT, over St. Louis, MO with Jefferson City in path, and an event possible at Columbia and Rolla. At 3:44 UT (9:44 pm CST), the path is over s.cen. MO and s.e. Kansas, with Powell Obs. & Wichita in the path, but an event possible from Kansas City & Emporia; at 3:45 UT, the path is over s.w. Kansas & the Oklahoma panhandle; and at 3:46 UT (8:46 pm MST), the path is over northern N.Mex., including Taos & Santa Fe near the s. limit, but an event is possible from Albuquerque. At 3:47 UT (8:47 pm MST = 7:47 pm PST), the path is over n.w. N. Mex. (Gallup) and n.e. Arizona; at 3:48 UT, the path is over Flagstaff & Prescott, Arizona, and Needles, Calif. and surrounding parts of the eastern Mojave Desert; and at 3:49 UT (7:49 pm PST), the path is over L.A., but also over most of Orange County and Riverside-San Bernardino with Palm Springs near the s. limit and Victorville/Apple Valley and the San Gabriel Mtns. inside the n. limit, which passes over Palmdale; an occultation is possible as far north as Santa Barbara or as far south as San Clemente and Escondido. David Dunham e-mail home dunham@starpower.net; office david.dunham@jhuapl.edu