2020 Astro Events
Jan 9 Thur eve 9:41pm - Occultation of 13.8 by asteroid James Bradley, try from home with 25% odds of a hit. Planning and Results Page. Results: Got data, too dim to see target, am keeping .avi file to see if somehow it can be pulled from the noise. 13.8 only 8 degrees from a full moon is asking a lot.
Jan 10 Fri morn 12:49am - Occultation of 11.9 by asteroid Benkoela, try from home with 28% odds of a hit. Planning and Results Page. Results: Got data, a miss
Jan 11 Sat eve 8:12 pm - Occultation of 11.3 star by 10.8 Athamantis, at 18 degrees altitude due east, from Santa Cruz and south over a wide path. High rank. Odds 93% of a hit from Santa Cruz city. Planning and Results Page Results: Got a successful 5.9sec event.
Jan 14 Tue eve - Occultation of 12.3 by 11.2 Aethra (10.9, dip 0.33) from Ano Nuevo, 42% odds from Santa Cruz, 58% on centerline. Planning and Results Page. Results: Got a good tape, but lots of scintillation and a probable miss. Kirk had a miss from BD.
Jan 15 Wed eve 7:26pm - Occultation of a 9.0 star by Arachne, from ~20 miles north of Santa Cruz. Planning page. Results: Drove to Laguna Rd NW of Santa Cruz, clouds and lack of time - got no data.
Feb 17 Mon eve 10:21pm - Occultation of a 9.1 by TNO KY14, from somewhere in AZ and CA. Low rank. Results: Bad time correction on my part. Got outside my place an hour late. no data.
Feb 27 Thur 4:09am - Occultation of 10.9 by Celuta, from home. Planning and Results page. Results: Kirk and I both had misses from home. No analysis needed on LiMovie.
Mar 30 Mon morn 1:26am - Occultation by Honoria . 12.3->13.0, odds 85% from Cabrillo, 40 deg alt. . Planning and Results Page Results: Got a 4-5 sec occultation from home
Mar 31 Tue eve - Occultation of 13.9 star by Volga, Cabrillo on limit 50% odds, during Astro 8A class. Planning and Results Page Results: I got a successful 2s occultation, so did Kirk at home..
Apr 2/3 Venus in M45 conjunction. Very nice! Make an index and link to your pix when you have time.
Apr 6 Mon eve - Occultation of 12.0 by Fringilla. 28% odds from home, mediocre rank. Results. Looked like it taped, but on playback did not. Alcohol cleaned the heads and now normal again. I was not looking at the right star during the event so do not know if I had an occultation.
Apr 9 Thur 6-9pm - Pre-trip meeting for Astro 25 Results: Gave them an on-line lecture on Carrizo Plain and asteroid occultations.
Apr 17-19 - Astro 25 at Carrizo Plain National Monument. Highlight is Sat eve 8:50pm - Occultation of 11.0 by Nealley, from Carrizo Plain. 13% moon. Astro 25 weekend. Southern limit is 5 miles south of prime campsite. Now firmly to be on-line. I hope to be able to still drive myself there and get the video of the event w/ video of the process too. Planning page for Nealley Apr 19 Sunday morning 3:08am - Occultation of 11.2 by Heinemann, also from Carrizo Plain and centerline right on my Nealley site = campsite for Phaeton with Kirk last July '19. Low rank, odds only 20%, but worth a go since we'll be sleeping there that night anyway. Planning page Results: Camped at Los Padres NF, clear skies, but mental and technical and dew problems - no data for either occultation.
June 5 - Full Moon rise over Monterey Bay
June 16 Tue eve 10:20pm - Occultation of 13.2 by Adelinda. drop 0.4mag Alt 18 degrees, odds 98%! Dur 8.4 sec and will require long integration to get, but do-able in this dark moonless sky. Probably drive up Empire Grade to GrayWhale, Planning page. Results: Looks like an occultation, and I should have had one. No verdict yet on whether it fits the other two positives, which were 4 sec late. Mine at first glance looks 8 sec late. We'll see after I re-reduce.
Jun 22 Mon eve 11:55pm - Occultation by Ella of 13.0 at 29 deg alt in Libra. 1.1 mag drop, on centerline high rank 79% odds of a hit here. Planning and Results Page Results: Kirk tried it from the BD Felton/Empire intersection, me from Locatelli Meadow. We both had misses.
July 10 Fri morn - First shots of Comet NEOWISE in the morning sky. Results: Spectacular! Best comet since Hale-Bopp for us northern hemisphere people. 0 magnitude nice tail.
Jul 13 9:30pm Mon - Occultation of 10.2 by 9.6 Herculina (0.5 drop for 16s) from Santa Cruz. Planning and Results Page. Results: Success, for both Kirk and I from Bonny Doon, but strong twinkling and small mag drop led to large error bars. We were essentially on the same track.
July 16 Thur eve - Comet NEOWISE trip to Eagle Rock with Kirk Results: We got some good shots and it's a great spot for photography.
July 18 Sat eve - Comet NEOWISE trip to Loma Prieta with Jeff Jolin and pair of Astro 25 students. Results: We got some good shots (need to organize on a web page)
July 19 Sun eve - Comet NEOWISE trip to Sunlit Lane and BD airstrip, with Joe Jordan, John Welch, others. Results: We got some good shots (need to organize on a web page)
July 21 Tue eve - Comet NEOWISE trip to Sunlit Lane and BD airstrip, with Joe Jordan, John Welch, others. Results: We got some good shots (need to organize on a web page)
July 24 Fri eve - Comet NEOWISE trip to Upper Meadow UCSC with Kirk. Results: 24% moon, marine layer, fog came in early. Got a few keepers, but comet 4th mag.
Jul 24-26 Fri-Sun: Astro 25 "Field Astronomy in the California Mountains", location was to be near Markleville, Sierra. Now, it's just on-line. No trip. 2 students did join for last weekend's meet up at Loma Prieta Peak for Comet NEOWISE.
Aug 6 Thur eve - Comet NEOWISE trip to Upper Meadow UCSC for Conjunction with the Globs! M53 and NGC 5053. Results: Got some great shots through the GTF81
Aug 12 - Perseid meteor shower; drove to upper meadow UCSC for a few shots
Aug 14 Fri eve 11:23pm - Occultation of 12.0 star by 10.4 Herculina, from south of Watsonville. Results: Ended up only getting as far as Mar Monte, with 38% odds. Successful taping, possible 14 sec occultation but dip tiny 0.16 so unless confirmation from other observers, hard to claim an event. Planning and Results page
Aug 17 - Mon 9-11:30am - All College Day (reg'd) zoom (reg'd and done)
Aug 17 - Mon 1-2:30pm - Listening to Students: Guided Pathways student panel (reg'd and done) 942347
Aug 18 - Tue 1-3pm - "Listening for Transparency in Workplace Communication" - Kendal S (reg'd and done)
Aug 18 - Tue 3-5pm - Faculty Senate Meeting - Anna Z and Robin McF (done)
Aug 19 - Wed 8:30-10am - eLumen for Faculty (done) recording
Aug 19 - Wed 1-3pm - CCFT Council
Aug 19 - Wed 3-5pm - eLumen Insights and Training (Carolyn J, Jessica)
Aug 20 - Thur 1-3pm - eLumen for DC's (Diane P)(done) Zoom recording
Sept 14-17 - CFMIP Virtual Meeting on Clouds, Precipitation, Circulation, and Climate Sensitivity.
Sept 21 Monday - Occultation by Uranus' moon Umbriel. Looks like an important event to go for, since the ephemeris for Uranus is not as perfect as we'd like. It's harder to get a perfect astrometry on a big fuzzy object like the planet. Easier to get the ephemeris, ironically, by accurate astrometry on the satellites - like this opportunity. Planning and Results Page.
Sept 30 Wed eve 9:41pm - Occultation of 12.1 by Io, 0.3 drop, Santa Cruz is on the centerline. high rank. Planning and results page. Results: I drove up to the upper meadow at UCSC under what had been clear skies, but smoke came in from the Santa Rosa fire, and at 24 degrees altitude even 11th magnitude was impossible to see. I recorded the correct spot, but could not see Io.
Oct 15 Wed eve/Thur morn 1:05am - Occultation of 8.6 by Laetitia, from Paicines. High rank, 3% moon, good event. We're near limit, good for well-determined limit determination. So far only 4 observers have signed up. Planning and Results page.
Sept 29 Tue 3-5pm - DC + faculty meeting on PIE. See Sept 26 email for zoom link, but I'll be teaching Astro 7, so have to see recording later. PIE has been put on hold.
Oct 5 - UCSC Astro - online Zoom session w/ Sherad
Oct 22 Thur 7:30pm - Occultation of 13.3 by Agamemnon; Lucky Star event of this Jupiter Trojan. poor rank, SC inside 1-sigma. Planning and Results page Results: Drove to Sunlit Lane to get barely above the fog, and successfully recorded a miss.
Oct 31 Sat 11:55pm - Occultation of 13.4 by Diomedes, centrally from Santa Cruz. 81% odds. Planning and Results page Results: I blundered to a "no observation", but Kirk and CLK both got good data, sent off to LuckyStar and IOTA on Nov 5.
Nov 15 Sun eve 9:54pm - Occultation of 9.6 star by Ophelia from path edges at Carrizo Plain and Mt Laguna. New moon. Drive down Saturday, astro camping Saturday night, then Caliente Pk trail run Sunday, then maybe hot dinner in Paso Robles if I desire, or else cook out at Carrizo, then drive to either Estrella Rd in Paso Robles, or else to Alvarado Rd north of Bradley for the occultation. Planning and Results page. Results: Success! I got a ~2 sec event from north of Bradley along Hwy 101, and Kirk Bender got a successful 8 sec event from Bradley. But, I got no recording.
Nov 27 Fri morning - 4:49am - Occultation of 11.8 ->12.9 by Barbara, stronly suspected contact binary. From King City. Planning and Results page. Results: Frigid temperatures in the 20's made both my and Kirk's miniDV camcorders fail. I saw a 5 second event visually, but only by memory. Kirk could not see the target well enough in the cold to confirm the occultation, but like me, had the impression of a brightening midway in the occultation.
Nov 27/28 Fri night/Sat morning 12:18am - Occultation of 9.0 by Bettina, centerline through Santa Cruz, very high rank. Suggest Derek and Karl give it a try too, visually. Planning Page . Results: Derek got a good occultation. But Kirk and I were all foiled by the zenith location and poor tracking (for me) and inability to ID the star field (Kirk). Too bad. Such a bright star and good sky and "sure thing" odds.
Dec 9 Wed evening 10:03pm - Occultation of 12.1 by Gordonia from Santa Cruz; poor rank. 31% odds of a hit from here on centerline. Results: mostly cloudy, actually got the target in the corner of the LCD screen, but 4 sec after the predicted event, and in highly varying cloud. No usable data to be gotten as drop was only 0.2mag
Dec 12 Saturday 1pm - Occultation of 91% sunlit Venus on 5- moon. Tough to 2-star align our 8SE scopes in daylight. Results: Cloudy; tried to get a few shots of thin holes, but basically a bust.
Dec 17 Thur eve 11:54pm - Occultation of a 9.6 star by Seeligeria. Very good event with 7 claimed stations. Full disappearance, for 7s. Centerline across Santa Cruz. Planning page Results: Successful 7s occultation tapes from upper meadow at UCSC. Kirk B got a good recording from home in Santa Cruz.
Dec 19 Sat morn 4:09am - Occultation of 13.3 star by 12.3 Aspasia (11.8->12.3 drop), from Santa Cruz and NE. 71% odds from home, 79% from Rodeo Gulch viewpoint. You and KirkB at home are on same track. Planning and Results page Results: Kirk got good data; I did not; clouds and got on target only right at predicted event. Clouds ruined ability to detect the 0.2mag drop for me, as target ended up on extreme corner of detector. Clouds had cleared for Kirk, and they did for me as well - AFTER the event.
Dec 21 Monday eve - Rare Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction: And only 6' apart! Best conjunction in 500 years. Results: Got some footage from the church lot above Neary Lagoon Dec 20, and better at top of Rodeo Gulch Dec 21, with Ann P. Photo page.