FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: 1432 Ethiopia occultation

["Tom Polakis" <polakis@xxxxxxx>]

> Thanks to everyone who tried!
>
> I saw the star disappear, but for 2.8 seconds, which is considerably
longer
> than the 1.9 seconds they said was supposed to be the maximum duration. 
It
> was also 48 seconds earlier than predicted.  Tom should have seen it in
> Tempe, as the path was NE to SW, and he is roughly SSW of me.  So now I
am
> wondering if I really saw it!


Randy,

The asteroid is only 15km in diameter, so I can imagine how you could have
seen it, but not me.  The 2.8 seconds duration is surprising, though! 
That (and your observing experience) makes me believe that you certainly
saw a disappearance.

For the record, Jennifer Keller and I observed through our 10-inch scopes,
both at about 100x.  We are certain we were viewing the correct star, as a
nearby clump of 9th magnitude stars in the medium-power field left no
doubt.  We never planned to time the event, so our WWV substitute was a
handsome wall clock that I calibrated to the Weather Channel time.  We
began continuous viewing at about 10:27, and finished at 10:34, bracketing
the predicted time of 10:31.

This should be interesting to discuss at tonight's EVAC meeting (in lieu
of an actual main speaker).

Tom

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