This high rank event passes centrally through Santa Cruz, with odds of a "hit" of 79%. Paul Maley will be trying it from Arizona. Both our sites look to be clear. The target is 29 degrees up in the south, in Libra, about 7 degrees west of the bright star Delta Scorpii in the center of the head of Scorpius. I plan to drive up Empire Grade for it, to avoid Paul Maley's track which cuts just across Lighthouse Point.
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I drove up to Locatelli Meadow to escape the fog and allow room for Kirk Bender to take the Bonny Doon Church position. I got set up OK, using the ZR45mc camcorder, and recorded the event - or so I thought. In fact, the camcorder did not record. While watching the star, with 1/2 sec (32x setting) integrations, I thought the star disappeared for 1 frame. However, I was farther from the center line than Kirk and his successful recording clearly saw a miss, so I must have had a miss also. Paul Maley's chord corresponded to about the Santa Cruz lighthouse, and he had a short occultation. Apparently a 1/2 diameter south shift. So despite the 79% odds of a hit, we had a miss.
Kirk's video tape, screen capture from LiMovie |
A zoom in on the time and predicted depth of the occultation. Looks like a miss. |
