As Tom reported, he and I both observed the last half of the occultation from Arizona Sky Village. As Tom photographed the moonlit surroundings, I continued to watch the star's passage through the Crepe ring and its disappearance behind the B-ring. Behind the C-ring, the star did appear fainter and seemed of comparable brightness to Dione, which I believe is 10th mag. However, I do not consider this accurate since I did no comparison of the star between the rings and Saturn, and the star outside Saturn's rings; next occultation. The star also varied in brightness/visibility to the point or plain sight and a complete disappearance. Unfortunately, I cannot hold myself to these observations: One, the seeing did fluctuate at 400x, but not to the point where I would change magnifications. Two, I was the only observer at the time, and could not confirm a disappearance with another individual as you would with a stellar occultation or lunar graze. -FRANK > -----Original Message----- > From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Tom Polakis > Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 9:48 AM > To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [AZ-Observing] Saturn Occultation > > > Sorry about the previous post. I assure you that this one will be less > devoid of content, even if only slightly so. > > I watched parts of the occultation from Arizona Sky Village, near Portal > with Frank Kraljic and others. Perhaps he will have more to say about > the event. With our 10-inch scopes, we could just barely see the star as > it approached the A Ring at around 10 p.m. The disappearance was > complete, and the star could not be seen winking in and out through the > divisions. > > I rose at 3 a.m. to take some pictures of the surroundings under > moonlight, and found Frank set up for the reappearance from behind the > globe. It came out on time, and was quite easily visible between the > globe and rings. Seeing was in the 1 to 2 arcsecond range, permitting > 400x. Frank watched the Crepe ring passage, and said that the star > seemed fainter. I'll let him describe it more fully if he wishes. By > then, I preferred taking pictures by moonlight over viewing a faint star > near Saturn. > > All in all, I hope this posting was a more enjoyable read than my > previous one. > > Tom > > -- > See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please > send personal replies to the author, not the list. > -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.