2021 Astro Events
Jan 20 Wed morn 4:03am - Occultation of 11.5 by Kallisto, home is on centerline, very high rank "sure thing". 21deg alt in head of Hydra in WSW. Planning and Results Page. Results: Success; got a 3.5s event from upper UCSC, Kirk similar from home.
Jan 20 Wed 8-10am - mandatory Program Planning meeting Zoom
Feb 1 8:48pm - Montana occults a 6.8 mag red star in Leo, alt=28, my site at Bradley Rd and hwy 101, Many observers, poor weather prospects in Az. I'll try if we remain in a cloud hole there, as currently predicted on Jan 31. Planning and Results Page Results: Kirk got a 2s event from Wellsona, I got a miss from 10mi north of him. Good data for determining a stellar diameter it looks.
Feb 26 Fri 8:00pm - Winchester occults 11.7, drop 0.5, Sure thing through Pt Reyes. Maybe get the events, then camp up the trail from 5 Brooks. Then trail run Saturday to Alamere Falls, from the Visitor Center (14 mi round trip). Results: OccBox battery drained, traffic meant I arrived and found a suitable site too late to re-set up to tap my car battery. Got no observation.... argh!. Planning and Results Page
Mar 22 Mon eve 10:34pm - Occultation by Regina, mag 12.3 full drop, from Santa Cruz with high rank. Results: Set up on Mill Rd near DeLaveaga, got 0.7s recording on ZR45mc. Kirk at home also got a successful recording.. Planning and Results Page
Mar 25 Thur eve 8:18pm - Occultation of 12.2 by Martir, from Santa Cruz with high rank, sun = -11 twilight. Planning and Results page Results: Kirk got a good recording of a ~3 sec event from Paicines. I observed from home but though I ID'd the field in the eyepiece, in the twilight rush I failed to get on target during the taping.
Mar 27 Saturday 2:53am - Occultation of 11.7 by 12.1 Minerva with its two moons quite possible as well. However 97% moon is only 5 degrees east of the target!! Will need clean skies and good dew cap positioning. Path central through Santa Cruz. A "sure thing" for the main asteroid, and the first moon looks likely as well. Planning and Results page Results: Both Kirk and I got good data, despite the big moon. However, I will have to deal with bad OCR'ing in the bright background on the time stamps. 15 sec event for me.
Apr 2-4 Fri-Sun - Astro 27 at Laguna Mtn and Pinnacles National Park (approved only as instructor-only to video and return with content). Results: Good trip, got a couple of hours of video lectures and 100 photos. Results page.
Apr 17 - Graze of 7.3 star, video recording for Astro 25, from Calaveras Reservior. Results: Karl, Kirk and I all got successful recordings, under good weather. Got about an hour of video lecturing. Here's the Results page
Apr 20 Tue 1:45am - Occultation of 12.5 by Berbericia, 0.4 drop, 38 deg altitude, "sure thing" from Santa Cruz. Results: I got a recording through fog at upper UCSC, Kirk got a good recording in clear skies at the BD fire station. We're both still reducing our data. Planning and Results page.
May 12 Wed 9:40pm - Occultation of 12.4 by Vera, 1.4 drop, 38 deg altitude near Pollux. A 'sure thing' from Santa Cruz and mountains here. Planning and Results page
Fri May 21 1:44am - Occultation of a 9.8 by Garibaldi , full drop, 45% odds here, mediocre rank, 28 alt in head of Scorpius. Planning and Results page Results: I had a miss, from Rincon St.
May 26 Wed morn - 4:30am Total Lunar Eclipse. Totality lasts only 14 minutes. Results: Beautiful eclipse - maybe the most photogenic I've seen, above the redwoods at upper UCSC, in the head of Scorpius right next to Omega1 and Omega2 Scorpii. Got some great shots posted on FB, but not yet on my webpage.
May 31 Mon 9:34pm - Occultation of 11.3 by Petrina, 34 alt, 38% odds from here, 55% on centerline at Monterey and Pinnacles. Planning and Results Page Results: Successfully recorded a miss from UCSC upper meadow. Kirk fogged out
June 1 Tue morn 2:09am - Occultation of 11.8 by Sharon, for 2.9s, 24 alt, 83% odds from Rodeo Gulch and BD firestation. high rank; 97% from Summit/17, 98% Locatelli Ranch Planning page. Results: Kirk (Felton-Empire fire station) and me (turnout a few miles south of that) both had misses. Garibaldi, Petrina, and Sharon misses all reported on IOTA forms by me on June 3.
June 9 - 3:58am - Occultation of an 11.0 star by the binary asteroid Arecibo, from south of King City and Coalinga. High rank and importance. Planning and Results Page Results: A big success! My plan to place Kirk and I about 7 km apart straddling the centerline of the predictions worked beautifully to confirm the existence of a new binary asteroid. It'll be the focus of a presentation at the annual IOTA Conference in July.
June 10 - 2:51am Occultation of a 14.1 combined by Deiphobus. Drop of 0.9 magnitude for 7 sec. From Santa Cruz County. Planning and Results page Results: Kirk and I both got records. Very tough, very faint, possible contamination by another 15th mag star just a couple pixels away. Tony says probable miss, Kirk's data says 9s hit but insignificant, my data says maybe a dip at right time but shorter and very hard to say. The 3 tentative conclusions are all contradictory, not statistically significant, and so "inconclusive".
June 14 9:53pm PDT- Occultation of an 11.4 combined, by Simonov, from Santa Cruz mtns. 72% odds from Rodeo Gulch and Empire Grade, 85% on centerline along Highland Way. Only 14 deg alt in SE, in southern Scutum. Planning and Results page.
June 29 - Tue eve 10:57pm - Occultation of 12.7 by binary asteroid Arecibo, from North Bay delta area. Planning and Results page
July 14 12:44am - Occultation of a 13.1 by El Leoncito, from south of Tres Pinos. Good rank, 38 alt. Planning and Results page
July 15 12:20am - Occultation of a 14.0 by 13.5 Vala, from south of Tres Pinos. Good rank, Planning and Results page
July 17/18 - IOTA Annual Meeting (zoom) 1-5pm each day. I give my talk on (4337) Arecibo occultation of June 29 and constraining the orbital parameters. Here's the PDF.
July 20 1:52am - Occultation of 12.7 combined, by Flammario, drop 0.7 from Pinnacles National Park, good rank. Planning and Results page
July 20 4:30am - Occultation of a 10.5 by KBO object Chaos, from CA. 20% odds, high value. Planning and Results page
July 25 7-9pm - Pre-Trip Zoom session for Astro 25 "Field Astronomy in the California Mountains"
July 30-Aug1 - Astro 25 Field Class - to Stanislaus River, limestone caverns explorations. Yes, a real field trip this time!
Aug 5 Thur eve 9:21pm - Occultation of 12.7 star by asteroid Lorre from Santa Cruz. 47% odds from Santa Cruz. Planning and Results page. Results: Success! Got a 1.45s event, Kirk a 0.9s event, both from home.
Aug 11/12 - Perseid meteor shower; maximum is 12 noon on Aug 12 for us, so the best night will be Aug 11/12. Skinny evening crescent moon so dark skies. Results: Watched from Karl's, under mostly cloudy skies. Saw a few. No photos.
Aug 18 Wed eve 7:37pm - Graze of 2.1 (Nunki) 15n of 86+ from Wilder Ranch. Sun is up, at +3 in Santa Cruz. Still, it should be easy to video record. Planning and Results page. Results: Bad smoke from the mega-fires. I did go, and set up, and recorded a very dim moon through the smoke. Did not see Nunki till 15 min after the graze, barely, as it got darker.
Aug 16 Monday 9-11am All College Day zoom
Aug 17 Tue 3-5pm - Faculty Senate meeting zoom
Aug 18 Wed 1-3pm - CCFT zoom
Aug 18 Wed 3-4pm - Budget 101 zoom
Aug 19 Thur 3:30-5pm - Transforming SLO Assessment zoom
Aug 20 Fri 9:00-11:30am - NAS Division Meeting zoom
Aug 20 Fri 2-4pm - Astronomy Dept. meeting zoom
Sept 5, Sun eve 8:41pm - Carina occults 11.9 on vertical path. total drop for 10s. Try from Ano Nuevo 81% odds, but if foggy then Locatelli Ranch, still 55% odds. Planning and Results Page Results: Kirk and I both got solid good occultation data. I, from Ano Nuevo, Kirk from the Martin Rd fire station.
Sept 13 Mon 4:10:15am - Erato occults 13.2 for 3s from Santa Cruz, from home 100% odds. I'll just be getting home from the GraniteMan. I'll be dead tired. Planning and results page. Results: I slept through by intent. I was too exhausted from the Tioga Run and drive home on the day before this 4am Monday event. Kirk drove up to the upper meadow at UCSC and got a good occultation.
Sept 16 - Brambilla Occultation - Results: fog came in for Kirk at the Martin Rd fire station 10 minutes before the event. I bailed, figuring the fog would get me.
Sept 20 Mon eve 10:21:47pm - Occultation of a 13.3 by Milankovich, from home 64% odds, 37alt full drop for 5.7s. Planning and Results page
Sept 23 Thur morn 2:26am - Occultation of 11.6 star in Gemini near M35, by Lanzia. 30alt, 99% odds from home. Planning and Results Page
Sept 25 Sat eve 8:41:22pm - Occultation of 12.9 by 2000 SC165, at Gazos Creek or Locatelli meadow, for 1.1s. Results: Smoke from the Sequoia National Park and Trail of 100 Giants parks drifted north and ruined our skies. Kirk and I bailed.
Sept 30 Thur morn - 2:05:39am - Occultation of 13.9 from home, by Hokutosei, 76 alt, full drop, Planning page Results: Kirk ID'd the field but didn't get the recording started until too late. I had to use two star too close together and failed to ID the field or get the telescope to track properly. No observations.
Oct 20 Wed morn 5:00am - Occultation of 13.3 by Trojan Eurybates, Sacramento and Bridgeport. Major effort to get this, as it's the target for the Lucy Mission to the Jupiter Trojans in 5 years. Cirrus predicted for CA, but best near Sierra Crest above Bridgeport. Kirk and I tentatively plan to go for it. Planning and Results Page. Results: We set up on Mono Lake, and clouds made for spotty recording. Kirk was clouded out, but I succeeded in getting the D literally less than 1 second before cloud-out of the rest of the event period.
Oct 27 Wed 9:30pm. van den Bergh occults 12.5 star from Montara Hostel. Good rank. Planning and Results page Results: I drove Kirk to Half Moon Bay, and dodging fog delayed our setup until the last minute. Then, I had not enough time to recover from a bad 2-star alignment. No data.
Nov 3 Wed eve 9:27pm, 12.0 Celsius, 37alt, from Santa Cruz; nicely placed for Karl too. Planning and Results page
Nov 5 Fri eve 10pm, 13.3 full drop by Rostovdon, 62 alt, from home, 5s dur, 25% odds. Planning and Results Page
Nov 11 Thur 10:06pm - 12.0 occulted by Julietta from Locatelli Ranch. Planning and Results page
Nov 18/19 Thur eve - 97% partial lunar eclipse. Almost total at 1:01am. High in sky from Santa Cruz Results: Mostly cloudy, but a broken clear/cloudy sky near the maximum of the eclipse, at Karl's shared with Kirk. Got some pictures with the Nikon, but not the big scopes. Webpage
Nov 27 Sat 7:27pm - Itha occults 10.6, from San Gregorio and Milpitas. mediocre rank, 58% odds at centelrine near San Gregorio. but other observers on board. Results: I was on my way back from a Pt Reyes kayaking trip and set up on Fremont Blvd in the parking lot of Molex. I was very rushed for time, and although I got on the target field, there was cirrus and the star was not easy enough to follow by eye. I didn't have time to mount the Watec. So, no observation.
Nov 28 Sun eve 7:11pm - Occultation of 11.8 combined by Medea, 22 deg altitude in Taurus in east, dropping by 0.5 mag for 12.8 sec, Planning and Results Page,
and then 1hr 20 min later...
Nov 28 Sun eve 8:48pm -
Anahita occults a star 10.6 combined and drop 0.9 mag. Planning and Results Page, both of good rank, can get both from Tunitas Creek Rd. Worth a good effort. Both are in Taurus. Results: Kirk, Karl and I all tried it. Kirk and I from a few miles apart south of Half Moon Bay, and got good data and clear occultations on both events. Karl may not have ID'd the field.
Dec 2 Thur - 12:48am: Occultation of 10.0 star by Schluter, from SC Mtns. Karl is in the path, but requires driving up Empire Grade for me. Planning and Results page. Results: Kirk was out of town, I did have a nice success on this bright star, from Braeburn Rd in Bonny Doon.
Dec 3 - Fri 6:20pm: Occultation of a 10.8 star by Modestia, from Wilder Ranch, and centerline through Moss Landing area. Planning and Results page. Results: Fog rose unusually high and foiled Kirk from the BD Church, and Karl from home, but I got above it at Nichols Rd and got a good high precision occultation.
Dec 16 - A solo photo session with my Nikon on West Cliff for Comet Leonard. Results page
Dec 19 - 2:16am Sunday morn, occn by Edith of 12.9 combined, only 0.4 drop, from home 50%, or 100% from Moss Landing south. Beach Street at south end is also good enough, Watsonville. Results: I desperately needed sleep, and getting useable data from home seemed hopeless. So I left it up to Kirk to save the day. He got a positive from Moss Landing. Planning and Results Page
Dec 27 - Another solo photo session with Nikon on tripod on West Cliff for Comet Leonard. Results: Got one shot with the long faint tail, through clouds
Dec 30 - Another solo comet session - this time I drove up to Back Ranch Rd with Nikon and tripod, hoping to get a dark enough sky I could see a hint of that amazing 60 degree long tail. But no; that tail so beautiful in southern hemisphere skies requires a really dark sky and the tail pointing up and away from the horizon. Not buried parallel to the horizon just 5 degrees up, in late twilight. I did get one shot with the comet, but only the stubbiest of tails. It's faded to 5th magnitude.
Dec 31 Friday 7:04pm - Occultation of a 9.1 by Laurentia, from SoCal, NV and Az. Results: Dunham urged us to try to get a recording in case a satellite surrounded this large asteroid. So we did... but Karl was clouded out, and Kirk and I suffered lack of time, as I'd not really planned to try it and only made and published the charts less than 1 hour before the event. Kirk was foiled by a tree and I failed to mount the f/3.3 and didn't realize it until too late that that's why it wouldn't focus. No observations.