Before discussing the other events during the next couple of nights, I want to
note that the bright occultation by (433) Eros was successfully timed by
observers in the San Francisco Bay area. The observations showed that the path
was narrower (probably indicating that the period of rotation of Eros needs to
be tweaked) and farther south than expected. Unfortunately, it was overcast
across most of AZ, so it looks like no observations from us.
_ _ _
Richard Hill wrote:
We are currently under a multi-day rain storm in S. AZ. -Rika
- But the forecasts show that's finally going to end, at least in Tucson -
Nogales, and the Phoenix region, tomorrow (Wed.) evening as a high-pressure
area finally moves in from the west; that should give us mostly clear skies
from then through most of the weekend. So I hope that some of you can try the
Anchises Trojan occultation, a Lucky Star project event, at 7:34 pm MST Thurs.
Mar. 14 (= 2:34 UT Mar. 15). The occultation of the 11.5-mag. star, UCAC4
437-052921 by the 114-km asteroid should last up to 6 sec. with a 5-mag. drop.
In the Tucson-Nogales area, the altitude will be 18 deg. above the eastern
horizon (az. 105 deg.), so a good view is needed in that direction. The path
center is over Nogales, where there is a 50% chance for an occultation, while
the predicted n. limit passes just s. of Kitt Peak and Green Valley (40%
chance), but a very possible 1-sigma north shift would put the path over
Tucson, with a 15% chance even at Mt. Lemmon. Finder charts of different scales
locate the target star (J2000 RA 11h 08m 32s, Dec -2 deg. 44â 10â) and
other event details are at
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2019_03/0315_1173_59546.htm . Since this is ;
a more important event than tonight's Aeolia occultation, where the cloud cover
remains iffy around Ajo, we have decided not to try Aeolia, so we can
concentrate on Anchises. We are the only observers in N. America who have paver
mounts that can be used for pre-pointing the night before the occultation,
which we plan to do for 3 sites west of I-19 between Tucson and Nogales
tomorrow night. If you might be able to participate, with either fixed or
portable equipment, let me or IOTAâs occultation-planning software, Occult
Watcher, know so that we can optimize coverage for the occultation.
Also, tomorrow night, around 10:15pm, there will be a lunar grazing occultation
of 7.8-mag. SAO 77064 on the dark side close to the northern cusp of the 47%
sunlit Moon visible across the Phoenix area, from Sun City to n. Mesa (over
Usery Mountain Park). A better graze, of 6.8-mag. ZC 790, will occur around
11:01 pm just n. of Black Canyon City. I sent information earlier about those
events and said that I might try one of them, but instead, weâll be south of
Tucson pre-pointing our paver stones for the Anchises occultation. The grazes
will still happen, so any PHX-area observers who might want to try them are
welcome to; I can provide more information about them upon request.
Tony George has also pointed out another Lucky Star event that will occur later
Thursday night, actually at 1:03am, when another Trojan, (1867) Deiphobos
(estimated diameter 118 km), will occult 13.8-mag. UCAC4 262-061619 in
Centaurus for up to 8 sec. The altitude will be 19 deg. in the south. Finder
charts of different scales locate the target star (J2000 RA 12h 18m 50.7s,
Dec -37 deg. 43â 16â) and other event details are at
http://www.kuriwaobservatory.com/Lucky_Star/20190315_61619e_summary.html . In ;
this case, the central line is over Hermosillo (57% occân chance), the n.
limit is less than 50 km s. of Nogales (44%), and an event is still possible
over Tucson, with the 1-sigma shift n. limit (15% chance) over Eloy and Oracle.
David
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