The nominal prediction path has very high rank and we're on the centerline. However, the RUWE is 2.25 which is large enough to mean the astrometric position of the star is not optimal. So the predicted path has additional uncertainty of unknown amount. Otherwise, the event is decently observable, with a 1.7 magnitude drop. The target star is 14.0. It'll take some integration to get a good signal. Unfortunately, it is predicted to last only 0.9 seconds, so don't push integration too hard. Maybe 8x? 16x? You be the judge, try to get it bright enough to see on every frame.
Alt = 32 in the west, Az = 266 which is about due west.
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Kirk Bender
Kirk was able to observe this event and though it was stubborn about yielding a 0-false-positive reduction, a new version of PyMovie seemed to finally do the trick.
Multiple different aperture sizes for measuring in PyMovie. Kirk chose the cleanest to then do reductions |
Target in blue |
PyMovie photometry of the target. Looks pretty solid to me. |
PyOTE agrees, redbar/black bar test passed |
Occultation a few tenths of a second late, and a few percent longer than the maximum predicted (although the max predicted duration is only quoted in a tenth of a second). |
Richard Nolthenius
I tried it from Cabrillo Observatory, as it was during my Astro 8A class. I got the scope set up and aligned just fine - then realized my charts were still in my Astro 3/4/5 binder, back in my office. I sped back up to my office, retrieved them, and got my car back into position for being the equipment bay for my attempt (as per usual). I found the target on my first try, immediately, and then set about trying to adjust the settings properly. The star was fainter than I expected, and I had to set it at 16x. While I was then busy with student management for a moment, the telescope drifted and as the event approached, I paniced as I could not see where the field was. I paused, noted the stars were drifting down, and so applied a move to bring them back up - retrieving view of the target.... but it was not 1.5s after the event. So, I fumbled it.
Karl von Ahnen
...also tried it from home He had some cloud interference, coming in about 45 seconds before the event. The data from PyMovie is below. A valiant attempt on a faint star, but ultimately it was just too tough.
Dropping curves.... the green target soon disappears into the sky noise |
The predicted moment is at the brown vertical line. Signal is too weak. It's highly probable to be a miss anyway, since Kirk got a hit and the asteroid was small enough it would be highly unlikely to give a "hit" for both. |
