tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988070140511726639.post9152388689072101742..comments2023-03-23T05:20:15.140-04:00Comments on Astronomical Events Calendar: Events for the Week 5/23 to 5/28Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988070140511726639.post-79899456792834458752011-05-30T15:19:10.672-04:002011-05-30T15:19:10.672-04:00For those who would like to know what happened dur...For those who would like to know what happened during the occultation, this text (in "") was written by Terrence R. Redding, Ph.D. who witnessed the occultation. Sorry for the lack of pictures. <br /><br />"Good morning.<br /><br />"This message is a general call to other observers not normally involved in occultations to consider participating in this world class<br />event. The path of the shadows crosses the USA from Florida to Oregon. IOTA has asked for observers either side of the center line<br />plus or minus 700 km to observe this event in an effort to identify possible moons of (217) Eudora. Thus much of the US can be involved.<br /><br />I stayed up late last night practicing acquiring (217) Eudora and its associated pre-point stars with my 70mm occultation scopes.<br /><br />My skies cleared about 10 PM and steadily improved through the night. Using Arcturus as a starting point I found it easy to star hop to the target. Just for the practice, to become more familiar with using my camera tripod mounted 70mm scopes, I also did the star hope from Spica and Antares.<br /><br />The target star is located with in a instinctive star pattern, is the brightest of those stars and once found is easy to find again and again. But I emphasize the need to practice.<br /><br />There are now 38 stations coordinated for this event, making this occultation effort the largest I can personally remember. Normally,<br />during an international IOTA conference, we are able to deploy about 20 stations. This effort could easily involve 40 or more stations as<br />IOTA not only seeks to determine the precise location and shape of asteroid (217) Eudora, but also discover and identify any moons of the<br />asteroid. <br /><br />If you wish to participate in this event, please do so. I can add you to the list of coordinated stations and aid you in filing a report, should you have a positive occultation. It is also important to file "misses" should you know that you were on the target and observing a the time of the event. The mis ses set the right and left boundary when determining the size of the asteroid.<br /><br />IOTA has widen the observation area plus or minus 700 KM in an effort to look for companion moons of this asteroid. That also means<br />multiples Ds and Rs may be observed by any of us. If you are using a tape recorder and or video recorder please consider starting as much<br />as five minutes before and continue until five minutes after the center time of the event. The center time for Redding South Observatory and the South Florida Science Museum is 02:35:34 Sunday morning local time. The error in time is plus or minus 7 seconds. The link below to detailed information contains an image of the path that will allow you to estimate your center time at your location. <br />Detailed information about this event can be found here: <br />http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2011_05/0529_217_23761.htm<br /><br />The mosquitos and "no-see-ums were out last night. So remember to bring repellent. Also, past midnight into the early morning hours dew<br />becomes more of a problem. If you don't already have one I suggest building a paper dew shield for your scope. I make mine out of black<br />construction paper and attach them with rubber bands. The following is the current list of stations: Distance (Occult) Prob. Cloudy Station<br />info Submitted by..."<br /><br />Thank you, obtained from http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mpml/message/25413WINTER ♛ HILL ♛ PUBLISHERShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05516639300768141561noreply@blogger.com