I received a message from Wayne Thomas earlier today informing me of the
passing of Gerry Rattley a couple of weeks ago. Gerry was a long-time
amateur astronomer and occasional attendee at SAC and EVAC meetings.
Some may be aware that he was one of the observers first to report a
possible satellite of the asteroid (216) Kleopatra on 1980-10-10. Gerry
visually observed a secondary disappearance of the target star during an
occultation. This observation was eventually confirmed, as it is since
been determined that Kleopatra has two very small satellites.
The late Gene Lucas, another SAC member who has unfortunately left us in
the past year, wrote of Gerry's discovery a few years ago. That article
is available at the link below.
Gerry's presence at future SAC meetings will be greatly missed.
1980 occultation observation of a satellite of asteroid (216) Kleopatra
http://ephemeris.sjaa.net/1012/b.html
--
Michael Collins
2017 President
Saguaro Astonomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona
president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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