[AZ-Observing] Asteroid Occultation - Help!

On Tuesday, August 19 at 23:47 local time, asteroid 105 Artemis is predicted to 
cover star 1128 1774.  Phoenix is on the southern edge of the predicted path.  
Check it out at 
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2003_08/0820_105_1153.htm

Paul Maley is flying into Phoenix from Japan (!) to catch this event.  The 
asteroid is large, 119 km, and the star is "bright", at 10.4, so even though 
the drop in brightness is only 1.5 magnitudes it should be a good event.

I am unfamiliar with observing spots west or north of the city, and I am hoping 
a few people can give me some tips on places we can go to record this event.  
As you can see from the above web site, either direction should work.  I'll 
wait till the path of the asteroid "shadow" is updated with a final prediction, 
about a week before the event, to check out the potential sites in the daytime.

The preferences: 

1. Must be relatively close to Phoenix.  Cherry Road, although I haven't been 
there, may be either at the edge of acceptablity for distance traveled, or it 
may be too far.  We'll be leaving the Phoenix airport after 7 pm, so cannot 
travel too far before we set up.  I think our preference is to be closer to 
Phoenix than Cherry Road if possible.

2. We actually need at least two sites, as Paul will set up at one site, and me 
at another site maybe 20 or so miles NW of the first, for a wider base of 
coverage of the asteroid.

We welcome anyone else who wishes to try for this event.  The nice thing about 
this is that you can probably set up in your backyard and stand a good chance 
of seeing it if the path doesn't shift north.  Since it is in the middle of the 
week, I assume it will be too late at night for many people to travel.

Please email me with any suggestions, or if you are interested in being an 
observer.  Thanks for any help you can provide!

Randy Peterson
 
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