The Occultation of a 13.3 star by (1220) Crocus

June 3, 2022 at 1:48:17am

 

This is a quick event, only 1.4s long. The path northern limit just nudges Santa Cruz. It's a drive to get into it deeper, but the rank is such that I think just staying home might be what I prefer. I'll get it from my driveway. The target is in Serpens and 39 degrees up nearly due south at Az=176.

 

 

 

Results:

Kirk and I both tried it from home. The star was tougher to see than the nominally fainter Volga occultation 2 nights earlier, even though this one was a higher altitude. I tried from the street below my place. Kirk and I both got a miss. I at 16x and Kirk as well. The predicted duration was so short that our confidence of a miss is not high.

Kirk's light curve. Also consistent with a miss, although with only 6 predicted integrations for maximal occultation, it's hard to be confident.

My PyOTE light curve, with reference star smoothed to what looked like the right level. No occultation is evident at the predicted time.