This is a low rank event but predicted to cross over central California. Observe from home. Good altitude. But will require long integration to see the star, yet the duration is only 3.2 seconds. Difficult. Alt=31, Az=50. The R mag is 14.6, which will require at least a 1/2s or full sec integration (32x or 64x), but with the 98% moon up, expect lots of sky background. The event could last up to 4.4s so it's still perhaps possible, and worth a try just for education on what's possible. I plan to try from Rincon St behind the hedge to darken the sky.
2013 LU28 is a Damoclid trans-Neptunian object (TNO) with a highly eccentric (0.95) retrograde
(inclination 125) orbit. It has a perihelion distance of 8.73 AU and an aphelion distance of 353 AU; it will
reach perihelion around 2031. Unfortunately, the path uncertainty is much larger than the expected path
width, so observers in a wide area are encouraged to try the event, as shown in the prediction maps for
the event below. The object is faint (21st magnitude) so obtaining new astrometry to improve the path
prediction will be difficult, but will likely be attempted; if an improved path becomes available, it will be
announced on the IOTAoccultations list, and will be updated on the event’s Lucky Star page and maybe
here.
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I set up on Rincon St to try to get some relief from the local lights. But still, the star was too faint, at 14.7 magnitude and with a bright gibbous moon in the sky and unable to integrate deep enough to show the star. Got no data.
KIrk observed from home, and also worried the star was too dim to recover any useful data. However, in PyMovie and PyOTE he did get a light curve which was a bit above the zero level, and PyOTE says there was no occultation longer than 2s or it would have been detected positively. Very likely a miss, and this was reported to IOTA with the proviso.
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