FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Grazing Asteroid Occultation

[Sam&Anne <sam&anne@xxxxxxxxx>]

this may be the first video of a GRAZING asteroid occultation, and  
confirmed by David Herald of IOTA to be three actual events; not  
scintillation.

you will see 3 obvious stars in the video, and a fourth, but dim  
TARGET star at about the 10 o'clock position from the bright star  
near center (I had to turn my screen brightness way up to see it).  
and yes, they are slightly out of focus.

the target star dims on the first event, and then is totally occulted  
(disappears) in the next two events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryaHGfAhZGo


this graze was captured by Jim Stoffaire, who I believe, like most  
observers in IOTA, is an amateur astronomer doing real science. for  
other info, see:

http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/NA/


the profile of the asteroid (which is one of several scientific  
contributions from observing these occultations) is at:


http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/Results/ 
Data2007/20070822_176_IdunaProfile.png


.............sam

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