Aidamina Occultation Oct. 24 timed in w. USA

Updated: 2003 October 29

   The path for the October 24th (978) Aidamina occultation of SAO 
126952 shifted about 0.3 path-widths northeast of Steve Preston's 
predicted central line (that is, about 3/4 sigma) while the event 
time was at most a few seconds late, quite close.  

   A sky-plane plot of the occultation generated with the Occult 
program by Rohith Adavikolanu and me, including the best-fit 
ellipse, is here.  The observers, 
locations, and timings, with some comments, are here.
The station numbers in this list of the observations correspond to 
the numbers shown on the plot.  Ben Hudgens and Jim McCormick are 
not included on the plot since their locations were too far from 
the asteroid.

   Below is a list of observer stations sorted by distance from
Steve Preston's updated (on Oct. 17) central line.  Distances are
given in km measured perpendicularly from the central line.  The
time gives the updated time (U.T.) of closest approach.  The
observed occultation duration in seconds is given in the "Dur."
column; "--" in this column indicates that no occultation occurred
at the site.

Dist.Dur., U.T.  W.Long.  Lat.     h City/  State/  Observer or
 km   sec. h   m     o      o       m  Town  Country Observatory
 485N  --  2 18.8  98.133 32.203  415 Stephenville, TX  Ben Hudgens
 118N  --  2 17.0 112.301 40.638 1311 Tooele, UT        Patrick Wiggins
  97N  --  2 15.8 122.402 47.665   34 Seattle, WA       Robert Eramia
  31N 6.27 2 16.0 120.815 45.839  643 Goldendale, WA    Steve Preston
  25N 6.04 2 19.3  99.020 26.478  123 w. of Roma, TX  PaulGabriel&MikeMills
  17N 6.2  2 18.3 104.447 32.076 1149 Yeso Hills, NM    David Dunham
   2N 4.92 2 18.3 104.571 31.989 1256 wGuadalupeMtns,TX Paul Maley
  10S 2.05 2 18.5 103.756 30.996 1026 Balmorhea, TX     Richard Nugent
  17S  --  2 18.3 104.766 31.915 1558 GuadalupeMtns,TX  Thomas Dorman C8
  29S  --  2 18.1 105.821 32.788 2827 Sunspot, NM       Mark Komsa
  44S  --  2 18.0 107.028 33.759 1518 s. Socorro, NM    Mark Vincent mobile
  54S  --  2 18.5 103.986 30.620 1597 Ft.Davis   TX     LimpiaObs,P.Armstrong

Not included in the list above are two stations, Jim McCormick in 
Utah, and B. Primoz and K. Snelson in Texas; I'll add them soon 
above.  They are already in the .txt file and the latter is already 
on the plot, both above, as station 13.  Unfortunately, no 
observations were made across the northern third of Aidamina.  Ed 
Vinson planned to observe at 37N, but while travelling to his site, 
the clutch of his car suddenly failed 20 miles north of Carlsbad, 
NM, and he had to take care of being towed so was unable to observe 
at that location at about 80N (where a miss most likely would have 
occurred, anyway).  I had planned to set up a remote station at 46N, 
but was unable to do that because of serious problems with the 
mounts for the finders on two of the 3 telescopes I brought.  As it 
was, my location about 10 miles south of Carlsbad Caverns was ideal.  
I set up a C-5 on a picnic table at a small unlit picnic area with 
the nearest lights almost 10 miles away.  It was the best sky I've 
seen since being in the Australian Outback for last December's solar 
eclipse, and the temperature was pleasant (about 65 deg. F) with 
virtually no wind. 

David Dunham