The target was a member of a tight double star of ~identical magnitude when combined with the asteroid.
NOAA GOES West multi-spectrum satellite image. Only the top of BonnyDoon was clear.
My set-up on Sunlit Lane.
This is a low rank but important event. There are 6 widely spaced claimed tracks - but none of them inside the predicted path! The predicted path went through south central California, but I was inside the northern 1-sigma zone. I'd planned to just try it from my drive-way. But fog hugged the coast in the afternoon. I checked the balloon sounding record from this morning and it said the cloud tops were at only ~900 ft elevation - easy to climb out of at the upper meadow of UCSC. That became plan B. I did a quick 3 mile run when I finished up other work, got home barely in time to make charts, print them, throw the gear in the car, toss on my Levi's and start driving. However, it became obvious the fog tops were rising fast. Still socked in at UCSC, and on up, even to the fire station at Martin Rd. I told myself I'd drive only as far as Sunlit Lane and if still foggy, I'd turn around. Just a hundred yards before arriving at sunlit lane, the fog tops arrived. At the BD Airport entrance on Sunlit, I was just barely above the fog. There was a brilliant night light bathing the area, from PG&E who had set up a camp on the airfield for their repair work following the big fire in August. My asteroid was in the opposite direction, and I shielded the scope with my car. I got set up quickly and efficiently, found the target star, got the Watec mounted and video ready, with 5 minutes to spare. I used 32x integration and the 13.3 star was quite easy to follow, maybe a magnitude above the limit. 38 degrees altitude.
Agamemnon is one of the largest Trojan asteroid orbiting out at Jupiter's distance. The predicted drop was to last 10 sec maximum, and the drop would be to 15.2 magnitude. The sun was at -12 degrees, but that turned out to be no problem. Sky light was bothersome at 32x during target location 10-14 minutes before the event, but not fatal even then. The sky was quite clear. There was a 40% crescent moon next to Jupiter and Saturn. The target was in Pisces.
I saw no occultation while watching the LCD live, and confirmed by watching the recording at home. With odds of only 17% for a hit, not surprising to see a miss.
|
The target was a member of a tight double star of ~identical magnitude when combined with the asteroid. |
NOAA GOES West multi-spectrum satellite image. Only the top of BonnyDoon was clear. |
My set-up on Sunlit Lane. |
|
A miss report was sent to IOTA later that same night, and cc:'d to the LuckyStar coordinator.