458 Hercynia occultation timed near Boulder, Colorado

New: 2003 May 27

     Rich Keen, observing near Boulder, Colorado, reports:

    "Despite low altitude, cirrus clouds, and city lights of Denver
to my southeast, I did observe the occultation by Hercynia.  I
observed visually, with WWV on the radio, and timed the occultation
from 07:40:42.5 to 07:40:46.0, a duration of 3.5 seconds.  Each time
observation is to the nearest 0.5 second.  I observed with a 12-inch
f/4 Newtonian reflector at 105x; location was my backyard at Mt.
Thorodin.
    I presume I was near the southern limit of this one.
    cheers, Rich"

Since he was at track 39S, this shows that there was at least a 12km
south shift of the path, which is only about 1/5th of Steve
Preston's estimated 1-sigma error, quite good, unless, of course,
Keen was near the northern rather than the southern limit.  He must
have been near a limit since his duration was only about a third of
the predicted 9.2-second central duration.   So far, I have not
heard of any other positive observation of the occultation.  Doug
Kniffen at Warrenton, Missouri had no occultation, but he was well
north of the predicted path.  Dennis Rowley in Chesapeake, Virginia
confirmed that it was very cloudy there, no observation possible. 
Unfortunately, the small south shift means that it's almost certain 
that the observers around both Topeka and Kansas City, including 
Powell Observatory at Louisburg, KS, had no occultation (that is now 
confirmed at 2 sites).  Below is my last station list for the 
occultation, with Keen's, Kniffen's, and Senne's locations added, 
and a letter added in the first column, "o" for occultation 
observed, "m" for miss (no occultation), "c" for clouded out, no 
observation, "f" for fog developed, star seen in video before event, 
and recorded but not visible during the appulse so that it may be 
possible to co-add frames, losing time resolution, to possibly make 
the star visible enough to obtain approximate event times; "?" 
for Joe Senne, who located the target star with his C8 at Rolla, but 
at 83, his eyes aren't as good as they used to be, so the star was 
only barely visible to him at times and he could not tell if an 
occultation occurred or not (he did not have his glasses, which are 
being refitted today); and "l" for Rob Robinson, who tried at his 
home in Bonner Springs, KS, but was not able to locate the target 
star due to light pollution.  So as of now, we can't be absolutely 
sure which limit Keen was near. 
___________________________________________________________________ 

     Stations for the Hercynia occultation of 2003 May 25/26

     Below is a list of observer stations sorted by distance from
Steve Preston's updated central line (calculated May 15).  Distances
are given in km measured perpendicularly from the central line.
Under C, the plans known to me before the occultation are given: 
* is a committed fixed-site observer, V = * with video, and m = 
tentative location for mobile observer, and M = tentative location 
for mobile video observer.  w = probably will be cloudy and W = 
video observer who will probably be clouded out. 

Dist.     U.T. W.Long.  Lat.    h City/  State/  Observer or
  km   C h   m     o      o      m  Town  Country Observatory
m 93N   7 43.4  91.221 38.725  50 Warrenton MO   Doug Kniffen
  91N -- Northern limit with very possible 1-sigma north shift
l 70N V 7 42.6  94.806 39.048 297 BONNER SPRINGS KS WALTER L. ROBINSON
c 68N w 7 47.8  76.393 36.848   0 Chesapeake VA  Dennis Rowley, C8
m 37N V 7 42.2  96.099 38.960 400 Keene, KS      HART
m 31N * 7 42.2  96.001 38.890 400 Eskridge, KS   Farpt.Obs..3m,Gary Hug
  29N --7 42.2  96.000 38.869   0 ** predicted northern limit ***
  27N V 7 42.5  94.700 38.646 325 Louisburg KS   Powell Obs. 30", ACKC
   0S --7 42.2  96.000 38.611   0 ** predicted central line ***
?  1S   7 43.1  91.767 37.950 305 ROLLA    MO    JOSEPH SENNE
f 15S M 7 42.2  about 20 km south of Lyndon, KS  HART, R. Wilds
  28S --7 42.1  96.000 38.352   0 ** predicted southern limit ***
o 39S   7 40.4 105.391 39.8772728 MtThorodin CO  Richard Keen
c 49S * 7 39.5 112.119 41.1251295 sw of Ogden UT J. R. McCormick
  91S -- Southern limit with very possible 1-sigma south shift

David Dunham, 2003 May 27, 17h UT