Mar 3-5 - Astro 25 at Carrizo Plain Results: Clear Fri and Sat, rain on Sunday. Got our Aldebaren occultation. Here's the story.

Mar 14 Tue eve 8:57pm - Occultation of 12.8 by Protogenia, from Cabrillo Observatory (during Astro 8). Altitude 74 . Planning page Results: We had a Keystone Cops wild scramble to find higher elevation close by and escape the incoming fog... and did set up in a neighborhood up Porter Gulch Rd with my students. And fog got us before the event.

Mar 17 Fri at 9:03 pm - Occultation of 9.4 by Saskia, from Half Moon Bay and San Jose. Planning page Results: I drove to Bear Creek Rd next to Lexington Reservoir, had scope trouble and could not get it to point to chosen RA/Dec and so got no data.

Mar 31 Fri - Comet, wildflowers, and Hyades Occn photography at Carrizo Plain w/ Wymans. Results: Clear and got some good images

May 26/27 Fri/Sat - Astrophoto trip to Mt Laguna w/ Kirk, JP, Anne, Chris K Results: Clear skys by midnight and an awesome set of photos and waterfall fun, here's the page

July 21-23 Fri/Sun - Astro 25 at Mono Hot Springs. Results: Went well, clear skies. Story pix to come

July 22 Sat 11:04pm - Occultation of 12.8 star by Friea, at Mono Hot Springs. Results: Didn't find target till 4min too late. But got planning and results pix here.

Aug 21 - Mon morning: Total Solar Eclipse, from Jackson Hole, WY . Planning page. Results: A great success! Photo page to come but will be a big project

Aug 31 - Thur eve 10:50pm - Occultation of 14.9 by Nerthus Results: Decided it was too faint after all. No observation.

Sept 9-10 Sat and Sun - IOTA Annual meeting in Carson City . Planning Page Results: Successful meeting, and successful observations of the Ninina occultation, reductions here

Sept 11 Mon 11pm - Occultation of 9.0 star by Germania, will observe from UCSC upper meadow. Results: A perfect "Nasoned" cloud out. Here's the story and light curve

Sept 15 Fri 4:30am - Occultation of 12.1 by Tamara, from south of San Juan Bautista planning and observations page Results: 8" LX200gps electronics went haywire and was lucky to get a visual ~4 sec occultation verification, from a few miles south of Paicines.

Sep 23 Sat morn 1:30am - Occultation of 12.5 by 10.5 Phocaea from Santa Cruz. drop=0.17, Planning and Observations Results: New Celestron 8SE worked fine, but swapping around miniDV tapes ended up making the camcorder fussy and the occultation didn't end up on tape. Visually could see the slight drop of .2 mag on the LCD screen.

Oct 13-15 - Astro 25 trip to Stanislaus River/Limestone Caverns in Sierra foothills above Arnold, CA

Oct 22 Sun morn - 4am - Occultation of 12.3 star by 12.3 Nemausa, from Montara. Results: got good data from San Gregorio... of a miss. Planning/Observation page

Oct 22 Sun eve 7:30pm - Occultation of 10.1 star by Bertha, (will look 12.4 from 10deg alt extinc). Results: Got good data from Half Moon Bay airport. A miss, Planning/Observations page

Nov 30 Thur eve - 7:30pm Occultation of 11.4 by Thetis, from Santa Cruz, good rank. Results: Tried from Hort Center parking lot. Had a miss. Planning and results page

Dec 5 Tue eve 9:42pm - Occultation of 11.9 by Charybdis, from Hollister and south. Planning Page Results: A successful ~7 sec occultation. Reported to IOTA 12/19/17

Dec 11 Mon morn 3:00am - Occultation of 12.9 star by Henrietta from Bay Area. Alt=26 and horizon is 14 deg. at CabObs. Star is setting, so should be no problem to get. Or try from Lexington Reservoir for 71% odds. Results; Success! From Mtn Charlie monument just off Summit Rd. of a 1.6 sec event. Planning and Results page Reported to IOTA on 12/22/17

Dec 12 Tue eve - 7:30pm Occultation of 12.2 by asteroid Denise, Cabrillo inside 1-sig path, observe from deck of room 705. Planning and results page  Results: Got it taped.... a miss. Report sent 12/19/17

Dec 13 Wed eve - Results: The Geminids maximum. Kirk and I, joined by other meteor shower fans, went up to UCSC's upper meadow and did astrophotography. My counts, around midnight, with the radiant high in the sky was about 100/hr.

Dec 16 Sat eve 9pm - Occultation of 11.6 combined by Phoceae from Del Rey Oaks near Monterey. Results: low cloud and high cirrus stayed away... until just 2 sec before the event! Nasoned! But heroic efforts and new software analysis from ROTE by Ted Swift look to have removed the cloud signature, and revealed a likely occultation. Planning page and Results

Dec 17 Sun eve 8pm - Occultation by Leukothea, from Cabrillo. 56% odds. 13.1 star, 3.2s duration, at 22 deg altitude Results: Clear skies, good tape of this very faint star; a definite miss. Planning Page and Results . Report sent 12/19/17

Dec 19 Tue morn 12:50am - Occultation of 12.1 star by Zeuxa, from Santa Cruz Mtns, decent rank Planning and Results Page. Results: drove to Cabrillo to get charts, only to find they didn't actually get uploaded. Printed Preston charts instead, drove to Lexington Reservoir and set up on the dam. Got a 1.6 sec occultation successfully taped . Report filed 12/25/17

Dec 27 Wed eve 8:22pm - Occultation of 13.1 combined by asteroid Li, from Moss Landing, home is on northern edge. Results: Travelled to the centerline at Moss Landing (63% odds). Looks like a miss, unless 12 sec early (highly unlikely). Filed report as a miss in early January '18.

Dec 30 Sat eve 6:07pm - Occultation of 11.5 star by Katja, from Santa Cruz. Results: Last minute clearing allowed fast setup from home, got 1.84s occultation. Planning and report page . Independent analysis by Roger Venable says it was a double star, with 0.35mag step on leading and trailing side. However, a later analysis with more comparison stars from David Herald using the video, finds that the duplicity disappears into the noise. An artifact of the faint clouds perhaps. Report filed with IOTA 1/12/18, but that included the second "star" which now is disfavored..