2013 Astro Events

 

Jan 15 Tue eve 6:30pm - Two grazes! Graze of ZC 3444 6.3 star 2s 22+ moon from Gilroy area. Followed by graze of 4.9 star 4n 23+ moon 10deg alt, from Morgan Hill. Results: Big success! Becky, me, Walt Morgan, Derek Breit were out there for both, and all got timings.

Mar eve's - Comet PanSTARRS in the evening sky. Here's my photo page

Mar 17 Sun eve 9:14pm - Graze of 7.2 mag star in the Hyades Cluster, with Cabrillo Observatory at 0.66 mi south. I observed alone, got 4 timings through thick cirrus, using the 10" and pc164c with manual gain. It was faint through the clouds. Here's the timings page.

Mar 25 Mon eve 10pm - Hugo occults 9.6 star from Big Sur; low odds. But, we have interest in doing this from Cabrillo Observatory by myself and Chris Angelos, and hopefully also Gene and Becky. It'll be a nice get-together and science adventure even if we get a miss.Results: Clouded out before we even got to the observatory.

Mar 30 - Comet PanSTARRS at Death Valley. Results: Got a few pix of Comet PanSTARRS not far from the Andromeda galaxy, very low above the low mountains from Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley. With the Nikon D40, so not inspiring. Dave Wyman's are better.

Apr 20 Fri eve 10:15pm - Graze of 7.2 star on 66+ from Tracy area. Glutonous feast-or-famine profile. Looks like a good turnout from the Bay Area grazers. Also a graze of 8.2 star 11n on 66+ moon from Tomales, Russian River. Here's the planning and post graze page. Results: Big success! Prelim says 63 timings from 4 team members on first graze. I alone got the second graze: 6 timings before tape hit the end.

Apr 24 8:30pm Wed - Occn of 10.9 star by Hancock, in eve twilight, from Santa Cruz. Chris Angelos and I plan to try from Cabrillo Observatory if the fog stays away (unlikely!). Results: Amazingly, the fog cleared, and I got a 2 second event, but not on video. Story and pix here.

May 10 Fri eve - An evening of astrophotography with Becky at the observatory. Tonight was the night of a narrow window when C/PanSTARRS would be visible, straight below Polaris, for maybe 20 minutes after twilight ended and before it rotated into the local trees. Results: Nice - Got off a few shots!

May 11 Sat morn 3am - Occn of 11.7 combined by Nuwa, from wide path SC, Big Sur, out to the Mojave. We're in the 1-sigma zone. Results: Fog at observatory, quick drive up Old SJ Rd, and couldn't find the star in time. A sad story, and no pix.

May 15 Wed eve 9pm - Occn of 10.8 star by Chloris from Monterey Bay, decent rank. We're on northern limit. 3.5 sec duration. Results: Got a possible short D-R visually (or followed wrong star!), with Becky at the Observatory. Derek had a 3.4 sec event in Morgan Hill. Story page and Excel report

May 16 Thur eve 8:30-9:30pm - Extra Credit Star Party for Astro 4 and Astro 7 students, at the observatory Results: A big turnout, and a few photos too.

May 17 Fri morning - "4th Grade Experience"; a program for showing 4th graders what college is like, and future career ideas. I did a presentation and tour of Cabrillo Observatory. Lots of fun! See the pix.

May 19 Sun eve 10pm - Occn of 12.3 star by Eugenia, from Santa Cruz. Sure thing! 11.9 combined to 13.0; 1.1mag drop, 7 sec duration. Results: Success! Got the visual D-R, and Gene and Duncan got the star trail image of it as well. Pictures and story page.

Jun 29 Sat 4am - Occultation of 10.0 star by Shaposhnikov, from Central Valley, Bay Area in 1-sigma zone. Results: A confirmed miss. Here's the story page

Aug 1 Thur eve 9:13pm - Occn of 12.4 star by 11.1 Irene. 10.8 combined drops to 11.1. Cabrillo on centerline with high rank, it' almost a 'sure thing' but small drop. Worth doing! Results: Just too tough, being in twilight, in a sparse field, and no bright stars in the FOV. Here's the story page.

Aug 12-16 - "Shoot Astrophotos Like a Pro" Cabrillo Youth Summer Institute class at Cabrillo Observatory/Rm 705 6-10pm each night Results: Great! We had clear skies and lots of photos as shown in the link above.

Aug 31 - Occultation of 11.3 star by 8.1 mag Iris, centerline across Aptos, rank 99, but 0.06 mag drop. Results: I got the event video'd. Have not had time to reduce it.

Sept 5-8 - Astronomy/Photography/Biology research trip to Barcroft Laboratory at 12,500 ft in White Mtns. Results: Clean skies, great photography day and night. Will have photo page sometime.

Sept 27-29 - Astro27/Geo 27 Pinnacles class. Results: Clear skies, JP and quasar viewing on Saturday night, and got in an 18 mile run on Saturday. Pix here but page not ready yet.

Oct 18 Friday eve at sunset: Penumbral eclipse of the moon. Results: Observed and photo'd from Mono Lake. Pix page sometime soon.

Oct 20 Sun 11:30pm - Special occultation of 9.6 star by double asteroid Patroclus, from central CA. Results: Video recorded from upper meadow mtn bike crossing at UCSC - a miss. Pix page and links here.

Oct 25 Fri 11:30pm - Occultation of 11.4 star by Thetis from Big Sur up to Mercey Hot Springs (n. limit). 57- moon 39 deg away. Results: A miss gotten visually from Cabrillo Observatory.

Nov 8 Fri eve 10pm, occultation of 11.9 star by 12.2 Iduna from here. Ted, Derek will give it a go. Ted's track +20km, I'm track -18km, Derek track 33km. Odds here are 71%, near max. Results: Successful 14 sec occultation; some other tracks too. Reductions and story.

Nov 9/10 Sat night all night -Astro 9 optional field trip to hills above Mercey Hot Springs. Planning page. Results: We switched to Fremont Peak at the last minute; fog covered the cities so that was an OK choice. Only Gene and Becky participated with me. Pix page

Nov 14 Thur eve 7:00pm - I give a talk at SCAC: "Climate Change: The Science, the Future, and Strategies" at Scout House at Harvey West Park. Results: A sobering talk did I give. The PowerPoint is here

Nov 16 Sat eve 9:38pm - Occultation of 11.3 star by Jenny, from Hayward. Aptos in southern uncertainty zone. Full moon. Results: target rose over the highest hill and made for only 2 minutes to acquire and time; did visually. Looks like I did have an occultation. Web page is here.

Nov 24 Sun eve 11:24pm - Occultation of 12.8 star by Washingtonia, from Bay Area and Aptos on edge. mag 12.0 combined, 0.8 drop. Results: The occultation shifted my way; got a 1 minute star trail photo of the occultation, and story here

Dec 21 Sat eve 10:50pm - Occultation of 12.2 star by Honoria, through Bay Area. Santa Cruz just inside southern 1-sig limit. Maybe try from Bonny Doon after Mary's party. Results: Observed from track -82.5km, at Locatelli Ranch near Lockheed. Pretty sure I have the star on the chip, but too faint to see. I'll use Tangra to stack frames and see if it appears. Used the Owl 0.5x and no Meade f/3.3 w/ pc164cEX2. Here's the story and reduction page.

Dec 28 Sat morn 5:19am - Occultation of 10.2 star by Lumen. Very high rank, Aptos on centerline; a "sure thing"! Results: I muffed the "sure thing". Here's the story.