The Occultation of an 11.5 star by 11.8 Anahita

Nov 28, 2021 at 8:38:44pm

Preston Predictions

 

This event happens just 80 minutes after the Medea event, also in Taurus. It's a little easier, with a 10.6 combined magnitude and 0.9 magnitude drop, but is predicted to last only 5.4s max. Alt=25 degrees at Az=79. I've picked out a site for Kirk and for me, which gives high odds of success and doesn't sit on other tracks, just south of Half Moon Bay. I'm planning on being on Higgins Cyn Rd, and Kirk's on Verde Rd. We'll need to be there for the 90 minutes after the first event, so hopefully these are quiet sites, and Kirk can keep his scope corrector plate warm enough to avoid dew formation.

 

 

Results:

This was a "2-fer" or Double Header night - and Anahita was the 2nd event which passed through this location. For this event, we were expected to be closer to the southern limit. The 0.9 depth was much easier to see, and likely also because I used a setting of 2x to maximize time resolution, and considering the vent was decently bright enough to allow this.

Richard Nolthenius

While the flickering image of the star was only dimly visible on the monitor, the light curve shows the occultation very well and with good accuracy. The S/N was only 1.39, but I believe that is a measure of the depth of the occultation vs the scatter in the unocculted points. Since we integrated only at 2x to keep the time resolution (a good thing), this likely why the scatter is rather higher due to the flickering at low altitude. The False Positive graph is quite dramatically showing it's real. The event duration was predicted to be only 5.4 seconds, yet even here not that far from the predicted southern limit, the occultation was 6.25 sec for me. The asteroid therefore appears to be larger, and darker, than expected, else it's rather oblong. We'll be able to see that when IOTA publishes the skyplane.

     
       

PyOTE Log file Event duration 6.27s, S/N = 1.39

 

Kirk Bender

Kirk got data just as solid as mine, for both Anahita and Medea, with of course, identical equipment.

 
   

PyOTE log file