This is the LuckyStar -NIMA path, includes all of California
Varda's moon Ilmare, path is far south
The more northern JPL path, which Ben feels may be the favored one. The accuracy limits should be ignored.
This object is a special research project of Ben Proudfoot, and the Wiki article summarizing what's know about this object shows that despite being a known binary, there are important uncertainties and degeneracies in the solutions to key parameters and therefore its history. The elongation as a triaxial ellipsoid is uncertain, as is the density and there is mention of only 1 stellar occultation having been observed so far.
There are two ephemeri available. The one from JPL is thought by Ben to be the more reliable, but does not include stellar occultations. The LuckyStar /NIMA orbit does include the stellar occultation. One path has the Bay Area just outside the southern limit. The Lucky Star orbit has Santa Cruz on the centerline. The moon Llarma is known well enough to be pretty sure it's well south of the U.S. and not in play for us.
Alt= Az= 11" away from UCAC4 443-077614
RA:
This is the LuckyStar -NIMA path, includes all of California |
Varda's moon Ilmare, path is far south |
The more northern JPL path, which Ben feels may be the favored one. The accuracy limits should be ignored. |
Here's finder charts for the 8SE alt/Az configuration. Ted Swift points out that we may be able to gain about a magnitude of observability by using the 3DNR feature on the Watec's. This smoothes over pixels and over time to dramatically reduce sky and time noise and give a much smoother background. I've not yet experimented with this on my Watec but I did view it on the PC 165DNR at Cabrillo Observatory and indeed it does smooth the sky quite well. Given the full duration estimate of 30s, even 4s integrations and perhaps using 3DNR as well, may give enough, using adjustments on the IOTA VC 2.4 capture brightness/contrast, to get this even on an 8SE scope? That's a wild guess at this point.
Diagonal dimensions 19 arcmin, about equivalent to our 8SE field in equatorial mode, with f/3.3 reducer. |
5.6' diagonal field, Aladin. Closer to what the MIRA optics would see on-chip. The bright star to right of target is UCAC4 443-077614 |
Dan Cotton is interested in teaming up for this at MIRA OOS; we're seeing if they can re-arrange their schedule to accomodate.
