[evac-announce] Volunteers needed for occultation on January 21
- From: Claude Haynes <azstargeazer@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: evac-announce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 15:52:26 -0700
Long message, but please review if you can assist. No experience or
equipment is required. You just need to transport the equipment. If you
are interested we can discuss at tomorrows meeting.
Thanks
Don Wrigley
From: tedblank@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 06:50:47 -0700
Subject: Looking for volunteers to help with an asteroid occultation on Jan
21
To: president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Don, we are looking for a few volunteers to help staff equipment out in
the field for an asteroid occultation event on January 21st. Details
below. If you feel it's appropriate, would you mind forwarding this to the
EVAC list? Paul Maley is one of the most experienced occultation observers
in the world and (lucky for us) is in the process of moving to Phoenix.
No experience necessary to assist, and it's a lot of fun. Anyone
interested should contact Paul directly at pdmaley@xxxxxxxxx .
Thanks!
Ted Blank
Information from Paul Maley (pdmaley@xxxxxxxxx) :
I will be setting up a string of small portable video stations at the
following offsets
from the current path and could really use some help activating and
deactivating
them. The occultation occurs at 10.57pm and sunset at 5.49pm. An
expedition
"go/no-go" call will be set around 3pm and I will send an email to all
volunteers to
that effect. Sites will be set up tentatively at these locations using
today's interactive
map at: http://www.poyntsource.com/New/Google/20160122_36296.HTM
(locations subject to change)
1. hwy 88 17.7km north
2. hwy 60 8.5km north
3. hwy 60 0.1km north
4. hwy 79 10.5km south
5. hwy 79 18km south
6. hwy 79 28.9km south
7. hwy 79 40km south
I am looking for volunteers to staff these portable video systems in order
to help with
the 2d mapping of the asteroid. No experience is necessary, just an
interest in
contributing to occultation science in order to improve the model of this
main belt
asteroid. The hardware at each site will include a 70mm refractor (may be
changed
later), camcorder and low light camera all battery operated. I will
pre-record GPS
time on each camcorder before the occultation and later after the
occultation in order
to properly synch all the camcorders to the master. The resultant data
should provide
33ms time accuracy at each station. The plan would be to meet near sunset
where I
will show each volunteer how to operate the camcorder and camera system. We
would then proceed to each of the sites beginning with site 1 where I will
set up and
point each scope and drop off the first volunteer. We will proceed
southeast to each
successive site where I will repeat the process until I reach the last site
which I will
operate.
After the event all vounteers will need to return back to the original
meeting point to
drop off their equipment. Anyone who is interested in helping out with this
(or knows
someone who wants to assist) is invited to contact me by email. I will
provide all the
equipment. Volunteers need to bring a vehicle, flashlight, cell phone,
appropriate
clothing. Please consult this link for information on the operating
procedure, images
of the equipment, and an example timeline. It would help to have a single
person
operating each site with a companion for security but no more than two
people (no
children!) in order to maintain the integrity of the observation. See:
http://www.eclipsetours.com/paul-maley/occultations/my-observations/ in
particular
review SECTION 6A.
The real timeline will be updated on this site as we get closer. Should you
have any
questions kindly contact me by email and I will be happy to answer them.
In the map below, the two blue lines represent the northern and southern
edges of the shadow path. (The shadow of the asteroid will be exactly the
same size as the asteroid, and it will take about 15 minutes for the shadow
to cross the entire North American continent.)
[image: Inline image 1]
The gray lines in the map above represent 8 other fixed-location observers
who have already registered their intent to record the event. The position
of the gray line in each case shows what portion of the asteroid they will
see the star pass behind, assuming the asteroid follows its expected path
(the green line). The two red lines represent how much uncertainty there
is in whether the asteroid will actually follow its predicted path - in
this case, the uncertainty is quite low, meaning a high probability of
actually seeing the star disappear behind the asteroid.
[image: Inline image 2]
(A map of the asteroid's shadow path across the USA is shown below).
[image: Inline image 3]
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