All times UT unless otherwise noted

This is the best occultation in North America during the remainder of
2008; observers in much of the continent have a chance to observe an
occultation by a probable satellite of Lucina and so observations
are encouraged over a very wide area, including most of the USA,
southern Canada, and northern Mexico. Especially if you have mobile
capability, please consider trying to get into the path of the
occultation by Lucina itself, stretching from northern California to
western Ontario.

Please help us Wednesday night, actually early Thursday morning,
Sept. 20, at 10:48-10:50 UT (3:48 am PDT, 4:49 am MDT, 5:50 am CDT,
and 6:50 am EDT), to measure the size and shape of the approximately
132-km asteroid (146) Lucina by observing and at least approximately
timing its occultation of 7.9-mag. SAO 78252 (= TYC 1327-00069-1)
2/3rds of a deg. south and a little west of the 3rd-mag. star mu
Geminorum (Tejat); the target star is actually in Orion's club a
little south of the border with Gemini.

I have posted much more information at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/mp146.htm
and will have more to say about coverage for the event in a few days.

David

PowerPoint File is >> HERE

The midnight forecast was not as good, but the new 
(this afternoon's) Astro Meteo
forecast is very good for tonight's graze in central Penn. and
n.e. Maryland, so I'd like help to observe it north of Aberdeen,
MD - hope you can join us for this, perhaps our best chance
for a graze within 100 miles of Washington, DC until Aug. 8.
As shown in last night's message, the graze will occur just
before 10 pm EDT; you can see more details about it there.  
I'll have more detailed information later, but for now, I'll
make a final decision at 4:30 pm so I can leave home by 5:30 pm
to give me time to scout out the area and set up at least a
couple of remote telescopes.  We might be able to car pool if
you can meet at my home in Greenbelt by 5:30 pm, or you can
just meet me in the graze area at 8:45 pm; the planned meeting
place is the northeast corner of the intersection of 
MD Routes 155 (Level Rd.) and 462 (Paradise Rd.) at
Foxbridge, MD (that's a very small place, part of Webster).
To get there, take MD 155 north (but really west) from I-95 
exit 89 (Havre de Grace) for 1.7 miles to the meeting
intersection.  Maps showing the graze path across s.cen. PA
and n.e. MD, and detailed maps of the meeting place and sites
in the Webster, MD area are in the Power Point file. Hope to 
see you there for an interesting graze under good conditions - 
help map the northern lunar profile.

David
________________________________________________ 

David Dunham, 2007 May 20, 1pm EDT
Phones home 301-474-4722; cell 301-526-5590 

Below is last night's message.

Unfortunately, the IR satellite image showed that Friday night's
great graze across central & s.e. Va. was clouded out, and I 
couldn't get anyone to go with me to eastern Ohio, where it was
clear, so there was no expedition for it from the DC area, and
as far as I know, nobody observed the spectacular event.

We have a closer "consolation prise" graze, a faint star but
under very good astronomical conditions, over s. central Penn.
(near Lewisbury and Emigsville n. of York) and near Aberdeen, MD,
just before 10 pm tomorrow (Sunday) evening, May 20th, which,
weather permitting, can be observed well with 6-inch or larger
telescopes; let me know if you might be interested in participating
in an expedition for it north of Aberdeen - the detail of the lunar
profile that we can obtain will be proportional to the number of
stations that we can set up and run, so the more, the better.
We won't be trying the more difficult graze Wed. evening near
Massaponax, VA, so this will be the last grazing occultation
expedition planned from the DC region until the one for the
spectacular graze of Regulus near Charleston, SC the evening of
June 19th.  Let me know if you can help with an effort to observe
the graze near Aberdeen; it won't be worthwhile unless we can 
get a few observers out for it.  If you don't have enough
equipment, I have extra that you can use.  The general 
circumstances of the graze are in the table below.

There are three asteroidal occultations this coming week, by
Charis early Tues. evening, May 22 (low in the east with some
twilight); Papagena at midnight Wed. night May 23/24; and 
Tabora Thurs. evening, all of these generally visible northeast
of Washington, DC, with all visible from eastern Penn.  
Accuweather is forecasting poor weather for the first and last
events, but predicting only scattered cirrus for the southern
part of the wide Papagena occultation zone, which could occur
as far west as DC and central Maryland.  So please be prepared
to try to observe that good event; we could obtain some valuable
data about that asteroid.  Unfortunately, lots of clouds are
forecast for the northern part of the Papagena path, over
northern Penn. and New York.

________________________________________________ 

Information below is mainly from my previous message, but just some 
of the tables are included; for more information, check my Web site 
at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/exped.htm .  The path offsets for the graze
zone for tonight's graze of SAO 79790 is +0.8 km to -0.8 km, for
use with Brad Timerson's google maps interactive site for this graze;
see the link above for it and click on "SAO 79790" for the map.

Other Lunar Grazing Occultations to mid-June 2007 and some later

DATE   Day  EDT     Star    Mag  % alt  CA  Location
May 20 Sun 21:59 SAO 79790  8.7 22+ 29 15N Lewisb&Emigsv,PA;Aberdeen,MD
May 21 Mon 21:25 SAO 80439  8.2 31+ 40 16N *Syracuse&LongIs.,NY Sun -12
May 23 Wed 23:01 SAO 99138  9.0 52+ 36 15N *Massaponax, VA &Somerset,PA
Jun  8 Fri  5:10 ZC 3398    8.5 52- 34 14N *Huntngtn,WV&Rochstr,NY Sun-7
Jun 19 Tue 21:20 Regulus    1.4 26+ 35 16N S. Carolina; Sun alt. -9 deg.
Jun 19 Tue 22:38 SAO 98982  8.4 26+ 18 11N *Verona & Bass Lake, VA
Aug  8 Wed  3:21 ZC 756     6.6 23- 20 11N Doswell,VA;Oakvil&Tuckahoe,MD
Aug  8 Wed  5:33 ZC 771     6.0 23- 45 13N Salvo, NC; Sun alt. -9 deg.
Oct  4 Thu  6:32 kappa Gem  3.6 40- 65  5S Pittsburgh &Duncanon,PA Sun-8
Oct 17 Wed 19:58 ZC 2702    6.8 36+ 17 14S Bethesda,Wheaton,APL, MD

* means no DC-area expedition is planned.
______________________________________________________________

                Asteroidal Occultations
2007                               Planet or      dur. Ap.
Date   Day  EDT     Star      Mag  Asteroid   dmag   s in. Location
May 22 Tue 21:07 TYC56160586 11.2  Charis      2.8   4  8 NJ,PA,neOH
May 24 Thu  0:00 TYC19650020 11.0  Papagena    1.7   6  7 wNY,PA,eMD,NJ
May 24 Thu 21:54 TYC19340103 10.1  Tabora      2.3   2  5 wNY,nePA,nNJ
May 31 Thu  0:17 TYC14650134 11.4  Brucia      3.6   3  7 OH,nwPA,w&nNY
Jun  2 Sat 22:05 SAO  79605   9.6  Athor       5.2   1  4 KY,wNC,SC
Jun  7 Thu 22:25 TYC14340773 10.9  Backlunda   4.2   2  5 eKY,wNC,neSC
Jun 17 Sun  3:39 2UC19998210 11.9  Jiangxi     3.8   3  8 OH,nwPA,wNY
_______________________________________________ 

David Dunham, 2007 May 19, 6pm EDT
Phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell 301-526-5590 
e-mail david.dunham@jhuapl.edu
home e-mail:  dunham@starpower.net .