Looks like weâll have good clear sky again for this occultation, and this
âpink supermoonâ night; good luck in observing the occultation. At the
bottom of this message, is the one I sent Sunday about this occultation. New
finder charts produced with Guide8 are in a .zip file that you can download and
access by pressing the blue âFinder Chartsâ button at
http://www.occultationpages.com/events/20200408_862_Franzia.html . 4Franzia.jpg ;
is the finder scope chart, centered on the target with north up. On that
wide-field chart, the bottom (feet) of Gemini is on the upper left, the left
(east) side of Auriga is on the right, and the horns of Taurus poke up from the
bottom, the right horn being El Nath, shared with Auriga. 7Franzia.jpg is a
zoomed in typical telescopic view also centered on the target, now showing it,
and stars to mag. 12.5; the brightest star on it, to the right of the target,
is 4.8-mag. 139 Tauri. The other charts, 4-1 to 4-3, and 5-1 to 5-5, are
pre-point charts, showing the pre-point line of declination for the whole
evening before the event. Of note for pre-pointing will be 5.1-mag. SAO 76256
just north of the Pleiades; you can see it at 3:52 UT just above the pre-point
line on chart 5-2Franzia.jpg. If you point your telescope at that star at
8:52.0pm MST (for Phoenix area) and turn off all tracking (keeping your scope
stationary), then at the time of the occultation, the occultation target star
will be 5 arc minutes south of where SAO 76256 was. You can also use that, if
you can see the Pleiades at that time from your intended observation site, then
youâll know that youâll have an unobstructed view of the occultation. A
list of the pre-point possibilities will be posted later today on the event Web
page given above.
The list of our planned efforts for occultations, and other occultations around
Arizona that might be observed by others, through May is in the attached .pdf
file, updated from the one two days ago and now posted at
https://occultationpages.com/Dunham/AZ_April2020/DWD-AZoccs.pdf . This includes ;
new and changed information from Wayne Thomasâs recent updates for April
events, as well as an interesting new event, faint but very long duration, by
asteroid Eudora on April 22 that Tony George found. Wayne Thomasâs lists for
April, and a preliminary one for May, are at
https://occultationpages.com/Dunham/AZ_April2020/AZoccs.htm . But this is ;
unchanged from April 5; it should be updated soon, to include a link to
Wayneâs April Revision B list.
_ _ _
On April 5, I wrote:
On Tuesday evening, Apr. 7, at 11:00pm MST, we will have the brightest
asteroidal occultation predicted to cross Phoenix and Tucson during the month,
a 9.5-mag. star in northeast Taurus that will be occulted by the approximately
20-mile-wide asteroid (862) Franzia. For Phoenix, the expected path is over the
western and southernmost suburbs, but with very possible errors, the whole city
could have an occultation. Similarly for Tucson, just the northern and eastern
suburbs are in the predicted path, but the path could shift south so the whole
city has a reasonable chance for an event. The occultation should last for just
over a second with a strong 6-magnitude drop; the star will just appear to
blink out briefly for those in the path. Observers in both metro areas are
encouraged to try to observe the occultation. If you have a 4-inch or larger
telescope, you are strongly encouraged to try to observe this occultation. The
star, TYC 1867-02787-1, is at J2000 R.A. 05h 59m 35.4s, Dec. +25° 33ʹ 11.2ʺ,
about 2/5ths of the way from mu Geminorum (Tejat) and beta Tauri (El Nath), and
only 0.6 deg. southeast of 4.8-mag. 139 Tauri. Finder charts of different
scales and other event details are at
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2020_04/0408_862_68090.htm . Although the ;
star's Gaia magnitude is 9.5, according to AAVSO's well-regarded APASS catalog,
the Johnson V mag. is 10.6 and is apparently a very red star, so it might be
variable. The weather forecast is good for it.
David
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please
send personal replies to the author, not the list.
