This event is predicted to go centrally across Santa Cruz. However, the rank is not great, and the odds of an occultation on the centerline is only 52%. Still, good enough to go for it. It's in the western sky 54 degrees high, in Perseus between Perseus and Auriga, about level with Mars as far as altitude during the occultation. Azimuth is 279, just very slightly north of due west.
I will either try it from home, if I can get the horizon, or else drive somewhere very nearby. I don't feel like driving up to UCSC. There should be high clouds, but perhaps thin enough to let a 12.2 star through. the duration is 1.7 seconds maximum, so keep integration low if possible.
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Richard Nolthenius
A miss, observed from my driveway. I tried with the older PyMovie/PyOTE, and then on April 26, 2023 with the PyMovie 3.7.3. It's still a miss.
PyMovie screen capture. I used 4x setting, fixed 5.3 px aperture, and two tracking stars with 'snap to' apertures. |
The target light curve. No hint of an occultation, which should have been ~full drop. |
Target in green, tracking stars in blue and red. |
No hint of an occultation, but anyway I tried also using the closer tracking star as a reference star. Still no occultation. |
Kirk Bender (PyOTE log file)
Got a definite positive, 0.9 seconds. A couple seconds late from the predicted 9:51:07. Pyote could not give me a mag drop though, I guess because signal was dim, close to background? I tried reducing again and got a better signal but still magdrop = NA. Obviously an event though, passed false positive. Files attached for your information.
Composite light curves. Target light curve in gold |
Zoomed in on the occultation, in gold. Clear occultation. |
Target light curve. Good quality data, clear D |
PyOTE light curve solution |
No chance it was a false positive, but it was a couple of seconds late. |
