Lunar Grazing Occultations DATE Day EDT Star Mag % alt CA Location Aug21 Wed 20:43* 2246 7.4 48+ 28 3S s. of York, PA; Wilmington, DE area Sep04 Wed 2:49? 093895 7.8 55- 36 6N e. of Hopewell, VA Sep04 Wed 3:13 63 Tau 5.7 55- 38 5N 30 mi. n. of Pittsburgh, PA Sep04 Wed 3:54 093914 8.0 55- 49 6N Owings,MD &5mi.n.of Fredericksburg,VA Sep04 Wed 5:27 093938 7.1 55- 63 4N LaPlata,MD&5mi.s.of Fredericksburg,VA Sep06 Fri 5:48? 0934 6.4 35- 53 3N s. of Chesapeake, VA Sep20 Fri 23:13* 161482 8.3 56+ 14 8S Richmond, VA Sep26 Thu 23:19 0035 6.1 0E 34 86U Delano, CA to Minneapolis, MN Oct04 Fri 3:08 095985 7.9 52- 34 6N north of Pittsburgh, PA Oct04 Fri 4:14 26 Gem 5.1 52- 46 5N north of Pittsburgh, PA Oct08 Tue 7:04 Yu Neu 4.9 16- 40 2S 10 mi.n. of Westminster, MD; Sun -2There will be no DC-area expedition for grazes with *, and probably none for those with ?. Four-digit star numbers are Zodiacal Catalog numbers, and 6-digit numbers are SAO numbers. Yu Neu on Oct. 8 is pi Leonis; we may observe farther west, such as near Hancock, MD, to get a darker sky. It was clear Sunday morning, Aug. 11th, and Bob Stewart reports successful observations of the graze of 7.6-mag. SAO 096652 from a few stations west of Norfolk, VA. As far as I know, nobody tried the graze of 8.3-mag. SAO 096662 that passed near Hagerstown, MD, a few minutes later. Sept. 4 provides interesting opportunities: Either a bright graze far from DC (near Pittsburgh), or a possibility to observe 2, or possibly even 3, grazes not too far s. of DC. Mark your calendar for this after-Labor-Day extravaganza; maybe it means rain then, and good weather for the holiday weekend.
Asteroidal Occultation Possibilities
If I am not sure that you are an IOTA member, or am rather sure that you are not, Edwin Goffin's charts for these events, annotated by David Werner, are enclosed; for IOTA members, they were included in the 1996 Planetary Occultation Supplement for North American observers distributed last December. If they are not inclosed, and you need them, they will be sent upon request, or they can be printed from IOTA's Web site at URL http://www.anomalies.com/iota/splash.htm, and go to upcoming events. Less detailed charts are also often published in the Celestial Calendar section of Sky and Telescope for the month of the event. Check the above Web page, or the IOTA phone line at 301-474-4945, for last-minute corrections to the time or path of these events from last-second astrometry. "ap." is the minimum recommended telescope aperture in inches. Please monitor these stars for 10 minutes centered on the times below from any convenient location, in case the actual path, or that of an asteroidal satellite, goes over your location. If portable, contact me to optimize coverage.
dur.
DATE Day EDT Star Mag Asteroid dmag ap. Location (uncertain)
s
Sep08 Sun 6:34 SAO 108482 8.7 476 Hedwig 3.4 11 5 S. Carolina; Sun-2.6
Sep25 Wed 4:07 SAO 77962 8.4 481 Emita 4.8 7 3 Cuba
Sep30 Mon 23:45 SAO 213053 9.6 247 Eukrate 2.8 11 6 Bermuda
Notes:
The above are only possible expeditions. They might not be undertaken even if it is clear, depending on other work. More details will be available closer to the time of each event on the recorded message line, and will be sent when possible in later e-mail messages. I can provide maps and site selection information for grazes that I can't try, if you want to observe it on your own or with others in your area. For more information and for joining the expedition(s), call David Dunham at 301/474-4722 or 953-5609. Occultation recorded message: 301/474-4945. Car phone 301/502-7475 but usually fails outside of metropolitan areas, and incomming calls are not possible when outside the DC area.
Below are predictions of occultations during the total lunar eclipse of Thursday evening, September 26th; timing of them is a valuable project for studies of the lunar profile needed for solar eclipse analysis used for solar diameter variation studies. The occultation of ZC 35, especially the D during totality, will be quite spectacular. For these predictions, longitudes are negative west of Greenwich; the times, computed for Greenbelt, MD, will be good to within a minute throughout the Washington- Baltimore area.
Occultation Predictions for Greenbelt
Longitude = - 76 52 10 Latitude = +38 59 10 Altitude = 53 metres
1996 September
SAO/ZC/X
Day EDT P Star Sp mag % moon CA PA WA long lat A B
h m s No D ill alt az o o o lib lib m/o m/o
26 22 38 06 D 109117 F8 9.0 0E 40 130 28U 103 128 4.2 0.3 +1.8+0.5
26 23 00 13 D ZC 35 G5 6.1 0E 44 136 77U 32 57 4.2 0.3 +1.0+2.4
26 23 01 18 D X00288 F8 10.1 0E 44 136 82U 2 27 4.2 0.3 +0.0+4.1
26 23 09 18 D X00324 G5 10.8 0E 45 139 66U 84 109 4.2 0.3 +1.7+0.9
26 23 35 59 R X00288 F8 10.1 5E 48 148 81U 306 331 4.1 0.3 +3.1-1.5
26 23 36 22 R 109117 F8 9.0 5E 48 148 33U 206 231 4.1 0.3 +1.0+2.5
26 24 04 12 R ZC 35 G5 6.1 52E 51 158 81U 276 301 4.1 0.3 +2.2+0.2
26 24 20 41 R X00324 G5 10.8 82E 51 164 82U 223 248 4.0 0.3 +1.4+1.7
For more information check IOTA's Web site at URL
http://www.sky.net/~robinson/iotandx.htm
David W. Dunham, IOTA, 1996 August 20 e-mail dunham@erols.com During weekdays, especially for urgent matters, use David_Dunham@jhuapl.edu; we've had intermittent problems with access to erols.com.