Observer: Richard Nolthenius (831) 479-6506, rinolthe at cabrillo.edu
Asteroid, Star: (772) Tanete, TYC 6849-00321-1
Telescope: 8" Meade LX10 f/10, equatorial, 80x magnification
Location: Carrizo Plain; W.Long= 119 51 12, N. Lat 35 07 52, elev 2870ft, NAD83 coordinates from USGS map at topozone.com
Method: Voice/WWV/tape recorder
Sky: clear, good seeing, star visibility: good - at least a magnitude above the limiting magnitude. Continuously visible.
Timings: Apr 18, 2004 UT
0.2 second Blink?: 12:06:00.2 acc= +-1 sec (eye/ear)
Comments: The event didn't last long enough to trigger my reactions and shout "D!". I made no comments at the time so as not to miss any events - this was about the predicted event time. It's possible it was a seeing event or spurious, but it was the only blink seen during 4 minutes of observing centered on 12:06:00. A satellite of this asteroid was likely discovered during this event, before the main occultation. However, I did not record the beginning of my observing period accurately enough to say anything about whether I may have had an occultation by the satellite at my site. A fit to my and Jim Stoffaire's observations give a diameter of 141km, 20% higher than the expected 117km, assuming a circular cross section.
David Dunham's IOTA preliminary report, including the likely discovery of a large satellite, and a sky plane reduction of our observations, is here. The sky-plane map shows that I was likely near the edge of the shadow of the satellite. Wish I'd been more "together" about recording these details!
Reported to: Notification of this web posting sent to Walt Morgan, David Dunham, Jan Manek
