Spectacular Pleaiades passage Wed. am 2007 June 13, Texas to Utah, etc.
Future grazes of Taygeta are listed
Updated: 2007 June 15, 22h UT
At the end, I give some pre-event information about the Pleiades passage, and two good grazes of bright close double stars, Maia and Taygeta. Bob Sandy and Hal Povenmire discovered the duplicity of Taygeta during a good graze of the star in August 1969. So they are especially interested in obtaining more graze observations of this tight pair. A message that I sent to Bob Sandy early this month lists future opportunities in N. America, of special interest to him since his effort on June 13th near Hamilton, TX was clouded out. Subject: Fwd: Re: The Taygeta Graze & Hal Povenmire Sorry to hear that Hal won't be able to join this fun. . . . He might not have to wait 18 years. There will be some Taygeta grazes in N. America next year, just not under as good conditions or as convenient as the June 13th event. Remaining 2007 Taygeta grazes in N. America n. of lat. +20 deg. Sept. 3, 5:20 UT, S. limit, 59%-, bright side, s. Mexico, s. Florida (no n. limit) Nov. 24, 11:50 UT, N. limit, 100%+, bright side, n.w. Canada to cen. Quebec Nov. 24, 12:30 UT, S. limit, 100%+, "dark" side, n. Mexico Dec. 21, 20:50 UT, N. limit, 93%+, bright side, Missouri (day, low)-Chicago-Quebec The above occur under too poor of conditions to include in the RASC Observer's Handbook for 2007; there are better events in 2008 listed below. 2008 Taygeta grazes in N. America n. of lat. +20 deg. #6, Jan. 18, 6:40 UT, S. limit, 76%+, dark side near cusp, British Columbia about lat. +51 deg. #78, Apr. 9, 2:10 UT, S. limit, 12%+, bright side, Salt Lake City to Daytona Beach, Florida #135, June 30, 6:40 UT, N. limit, 11%-, dark side, Nova Scotia, w. Newfoundland #179, Sept. 20, 1:50 UT, N. limit, 73%-, dark side, western Maryland (low) to Labrador #211, Oct. 17, 9:50 UT, S. limit, 91%-, dark side, n. Baja, s. Ariz., Dallas, St. Augustine (Florida) #264, Dec. 11, 7:00 UT, S. limit, 97%+, dark side, n. Mexico, s. Texas, w. Cuba David At 12:23 PM 6/5/2007, bobgraze@sbcglobal.net wrote: I was just informed by Hal Povenmire, that he will NOT be able to come up with the monies necessary for the long 6,000-mile trip . . . So the BIG BOTTOM LINE is, one of the co-discoverers (Hal Povenmire) of Taygeta's Binary star, will have to LIVE for another approximately 18-years, before he has another chance to see the moon occult Taygeta again;---whata Bummer!! ____________________________________ Pre-occultation message Sorry, except for this Word file, I don't have time to create hot links for the URL's mentioned below, you need to cut and paste them into your browser. From: David Dunham [dunham@starpower.net] Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 12:27 PM To: Dunham, David On Wed. morning there will be the good graze of the Pleaides star Taygeta, on the n. dark side of the thin crescent Moon, only 4% sunlit. It is a bright star, worth a good effort. The path crosses Texas, but others are in Utah & elsewhere. For it, Accuweather is predicting just scattered clouds at Del Rio and Hamilton, but partly cloudy (& some rain) in Dallas, and quite cloudy at Junction. There are also other Pleiades occultations and grazes that morning, especially a good Maia graze over Salt Lake City; see the RASC Observer's Handbook or http://iota.jhuapl.edu/grazemap.htm and also my map on p. 75 of the Jan. issue of Sky and Telescope. Rick Frankenberger, phone numbers 210-681-2276 (home) & 210-834- 2276 (cell); e-mail rickf@stic.net , has made extensive preparations for the Taygeta graze, with much detailed information in a 1.7-megabyte Word file. Note several total occultations can also be timed as well as these and other grazes; the best visibility will be from a zone extending from British Columbia to Texas, but observers throughout the central and western part of North America will have some occultations and an interesting view, weather permitting. 2007 June 12, 22h UT David Dunham, dunham@starpower.net, 301-474-4722, cell 301-526-5590 Office david.dunham@jhuapl.edu phone 240-228-5609