Observer: Richard Nolthenius (831) 479-6506, rinolthe at cabrillo.edu
Asteroid, Star: (395) Delia, HIP 30046
Telescope: 8" Meade LX90 f/10, equatorial, 85x magnification
Location: Mt. Tamalpais, Marin County, CA. W.Long= 122 36.20, N. Lat 37 54.52, elev 1520ft, WGS84 coordinates from GPS and elevation from USGS map at topozone.com
Method: Voice/WWV/tape recorder
Sky: clear, excellent seeing, mag=6.9 star easily visible.
Timings: Aug 27, 2006 UT
begin 11:26:30UT
D: 11:29:11.00 acc=0.15, RT=0.35
R: 11:29:12.70 acc=0.15, RT=0.35
end: 11:31:00 UT
Comments: Perfect conditions, bright star. No issues - these are solid timings. Slight fade out, fade in. Took about 0.1 sec to D and to R. Very strong confidence in the timings above. Length of event = 1.70sec = consistent with central occultation according to predictions.
Reported to: Notification of this web posting sent to Walt Morgan, David Dunham
Commentary: Here's a summary of the observations for this bright star event, from Walt Morgan...
I went back to my email file for August 2006 and stepped through all of the messages that I receivedregarding the Delia event. This message is being copied to all who were involved in California.
This confirmed the summary that I produced a couple days after the event (and which is copied in below the* * * *). Some clarification will be given here.
Don Macholz observed from his home, or near there, and reported a miss. I did not find coordinates from him.
Ed traveled to +22 km to fill in a gap, but had a miss.
Jim Stoffaire traveled to +12 km (near Soda Lake), but had equipment problems. No observation.
Derek traveled to the centerline
(he later said he was 2 metres from it) and reported a miss. (You were not
at home, Derek. You had planned to go to the centerline for a long time, and
your message says that you really did go there.)
Noel Lerner was at home in Sacramento, at about 3 km south. He had equipment problems, but observed a miss visually.
I was east and south of Sacramento,
at 10.8 km south (my estimate was 12 km at the time; the new number is
from a calculation yesterday). A miss, with excellent viewing.
Chuck Pullen's home is 25 km south, but he had sprained his ankle and did not observe.
Rick Nolthenius had a 1.7 sec disappearance from Mt Tam, 28km south.
Fred Schumacher had a miss from Bear Valley, re-calculated yesterday to be 59.9 km south.
The re-constructed summary substantially
supports the summary submitted in August 2006. I did not receive
coordinates from everyone, but apparently the only critical coordinates are
for myself, Rick Nolthenius,
and Fred Schumacher, and I believe that you have all of those now. My coordinates
were obtained using the
Garmin 18 with Kiwi OSD, with accuracy of the order of 5 metres. (I routinely
pulse the Kiwi OSD before and
after the event, usually getting four or five lat/long readings.)