Occultation of TYC 0769-01093-1 by (585) Bilkis Sun. am, Nov. 11 - Updated 2007 Nov. 9, 19h UT

The path for this mid-weekend occultation crosses North America from Vancouver, BC to Chicago and Norfolk, Virginia

Mostly clear skies are probable for w. Montana, s. Minn., Ohio, and s. Virginia

We need your help to cover the path and its uncertainty zone; I plan to set up 3 mobile stations in s. Virginia

Please help us observe a mid-weekend asteroidal occultation as the 
58-km asteroid (585) Bilkis occults 11.5-mag. TYC 0769-01093-1 for 
up to 8s along a path extending from Vancouver, British Columbia (at 
7:59 UT of Nov. 11 UT) to Chicago and Richmond/Norfolk, Virginia (at 
8:05 UT = 3:05 am EST).  The star is at J2000 RA 7h 35m 07.3s, 
Dec +11 deg. 10' 13", in northern Canis Minor, with more information 
on Steve Preston's page for the event, including path maps and 
finder charts at various scales.

The current Astro Meteo 44h prognosis map shows that it will be 
clear over the northeasternmost part of Washington State and s.e. 
B.C., n. Idaho, & n.w. & central Montana; and clear again over s. 
Minnesota, and then over Ohio & w. W.Va.; and clear over the 
Norfolk area and n.e. N.Car.; and very cloudy everywhere else along 
the path.  See the Astro Meteo forecast Power Point file.  However, 
both Accuweather and the U.S. National Weather Service say 
conditions will be much better in south-central Virginia (around 
Richmond/Petersburg) than Astro Meteo indicates.  Of course, this is 
just a first forecast, and better ones will be available tonight and 
mid-day tomorrow (Sat.). 

Please let me know your plans for this event, so I can avoid your 
line.  If the forecast remains good enough in s. Virginia, I'll set 
up 3 stations near I-295/I-95 from approximately Richmond to 
Emporia.  I plan to leave Greenbelt around 4 pm Sat. to give plenty 
of time to set up stations for this event; if you are interested in 
carpooling or otherwise helping with this effort, let me know.

Stations, with the predicted time of closest approach, 
altitudes of the star and Sun, and probability for seeing the 
occultation, can be found in the "stations" item on the line for this 
event on Derek Breit's global Web site.  That also has the 
interactive Google map for plotting the path, and desired offset 
lines [especially useful for mobile observers to find suitable 
observing sites], with overviews or zoomed in to great detail. 

David Dunham, 2 pm EDT
Phone 301-526-5590 (cell)
office (Blackberry) e-mail david.dunham@jhuapl.edu