[SJAA-announce] Fw: [AANC Contacts] Lucina occultation Sept 20

[Bob & Brenda Havner]

This may be the best occultation for the year 2007.
The last event of this kind was observed at the Meudon Observatory near 
Paris in April of
1982.

Do contact Walt Morgan or Derek Breit if you are interested and meet them 
at:
http://www.aancstars2007.org/index.shtml  Saturday, September 29th.

Ken Frank
VP AANC

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Lucina occultation Sept 20
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:33:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Walt Morgan <wvmorgan13 at sbcglobal.net>


At 3:48 a.m. PDT on Thursday morning, September 20,
the asteroid (146) Lucina will occult a magnitude 7.9
star, observable on a path that crosses northern
California.  A map of the path is attached, showing
the planned locations of several observers.  If you
will be able to participate, please contact Derek
Breit <breit_ideas at hotmail.com> and he will add you to
the Lucina map.  (The centerline is green; path edges
are blue; one-sigma shift limits are red.)

David Dunham calls this the best event for North
America in the remainder of this year.  As always, the
path is only a prediction, but this event carries a
Rank of 99, which means that accuracy is better than
for most events.  At least two persons will come from
outside California to take advantage of the very
favorable conditions in northern California.

The bright star will be easy to find at 38 degrees
elevation, azimuth 92.  Video recording is the
preferred observing method, but visual observations
can also be valuable.  The 10-day weather forecast
indicates that skies will be clear along the I-5
corridor, though perhaps not for observers close to
the coast or Bay.

David Dunham’s September 10 announcement of this event
is pasted in below this message.  Note that there is a
probable satellite of Lucina, and that might be
observed hundreds of km from the predicted path.
Because of this, Bay Area observers who are unable to
make the trip into the predicted path are encouraged
to observe from their homes.

You may contact me or Derek if you need more details
about this fine event.

Walt Morgan

* * * * * * * * *  David Dunham’s Sept 10 message
follows.

This is the best occultation in North America during
the remainder of
2007; observers in much of the continent have a chance
to observe an
occultation by a probable satellite of Lucina and so
observations
are encouraged over a very wide area, including most
of the USA,
southern Canada, and northern Mexico. Especially if
you have mobile
capability, please consider trying to get into the
path of the
occultation by Lucina itself, stretching from northern
California to
western Ontario.

Please help us Wednesday night, actually early
Thursday morning,
Sept. 20, at 10:48-10:50 UT (3:48 am PDT, 4:49 am MDT,
5:50 am CDT,
and 6:50 am EDT), to measure the size and shape of the
approximately
132-km asteroid (146) Lucina by observing and at least
approximately
timing its occultation of 7.9-mag. SAO 78252 (= TYC
1327-00069-1)
2/3rds of a deg. south and a little west of the
3rd-mag. star mu
Geminorum (Tejat); the target star is actually in
Orion's club a
little south of the border with Gemini.

I have posted much more information at
http://iota.jhuapl.edu/mp146.htm
and will have more to say about coverage for the event
in a few days.




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