[AZ-Observing] Re: Dec 3 asteroid occultation
- From: "Randy Peterson" <rgpeterson@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 07:31:26 -0700
I am unfamiliar with an exact number, but it must be "astronomical"!
But seriously, I try for most asteroid occultations that come near Phoenix,
and have traveled as far as 100 miles in several directions to try to catch
a few that were "in the neighborhood". There are maybe 10 events per year
that I try for. If I get one or two of those, that is statistically par for
the course, and I am happy. I went about 2 years with no captured event a
while back, then I got two events within 3 weeks of each other.
Very few, like the one coming up on Dec 3, are fairly sure things - this one
mainly because of the asteroids large size. Most are 10th to 12 magnitude
stars being occulted by a 30 km wide asteroid with a high degree of
uncertainty (a few hundred km) of its exact path, that unless you are
looking exactly at the right star in the correct star field from within the
30 km wide shadow-path on the earth, you'd never notice it.
If I was guessing, it would seem more likely that a satellite or airplane
occulted the star. However, if it was a few seconds in duration, perhaps
you did witness one! I guess the real test would be to get the date and
time this happened, and go back and see if there was an event at that time
visible from where you were. Several people in IOTA calculate possible
occultations for thousands of events worldwide each year. The odds of an
event "slipping in" without previously being forecast are extremely slim -
so there should be a prediction record. Any chance you remember the date
and time?
Randy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Neville Cole" <nevillecole@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 1:45 AM
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Dec 3 asteroid occultation
> Hi Randy,
>
> I think I saw a random occultation once by accident.
>
> A year or two ago, while I was observing, one star in the FOV simply
> disappeared. Just as I began to think "what the heck...!", it reappeared.
> Must have only been a second or three.
>
> I've sometimes wondered what the odds were of me seeing a random one like
> that. Any idea?
>
> Neville
>
>
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