This is a RECON event so should have good participation and your chord may be valuable. Rank=5, odds only about 3% of a hit, but good sweep for any satellites. Marc Buie at SwRI has instructed observers to tape from 15 min before, to 15 min after the predicted event time. As a ReCon event, it should have a number of observer chords for this very bright favorable event. However, the path uncertainty is still large so expectations of a "hit" should be kept low. This is another HIGH risk / HIGH reward event. High risk you'll see no event, but high reward if we do. KBO's are still poorly studied and little understood, and only a relatively small number have good orbits and far few have known satellites. Occultations remain the best most reliable way to discover KBO satellites and map their shapes.
|
|
Kirk and I both got some taping, through clouds, which interferred with star field ID. Saw no events, and both of us started our recordings a bit later than the predicted occultation time, but well within the time uncertainty. Karl did not try this one - clouds were too thick.
Kirk Bender
Roving middling dense high clouds dogged Kirk's recording as well as mine. The star was bright enough to show through, and any occultation would have been sharp and complete, so this record shows there were no occultations during this recording time.
The tracking star (red) and the target star (blue) show identical patterns - clouds passing. No occultations. Odds of 2% for a hit, so not surprising. |
Richard Nolthenius
I recorded from 8:14:14 UT till 8:27:32 UT through highly variable clouds. Starting at 2x setting, but then having to shift to 8X and then to 16X towards the end. At all times the star was visible and any occultation would have been complete, so this was a miss from my station as well. Report sent to IOTA and Marc Buie on Jan 13, 2022.
