Occultations during 2009

David Dunham

IOTA meeting, 2008 Sept. 14

Planetary and Asteroidal occultations in North America during 1st half of 2009

Planetary and Asteroidal occultations in North America during 2nd half of 2009

Star is Corvi = Gienah

N. American grazes during 2009

Grazes of Antares• Of special interest are grazes of Antares on the

dark limb of a crescent Moon such that the companion has events while the primary is occulted.

• This occurs only for southern-limit waning phase grazes.

• I observed such a spectacular graze from W. Virginia on 1969 January 25 & want to do it again.

• After the current series ends in early 2010, there will not be another chance until 2024, when I’ll be 82 & probably not able to deploy as many “mighty mini”s as I can now.

• So I want to try the remaining possibilities that occur over land.

Future Spectacular Grazes of Antares• The best by far will occur on 2009 February 17 in Western Australia, in a

dark sky shortly before morning twilight starts with the 46% sunlit Moon about 60 above the horizon

• Dave Herald’s daughter lives near the path about a day’s drive northeast of Perth; he is making plans for it since weather prospects away from the coast are good; very hot summer temperatures are expected

• The only other possibility will be on 2010 Jan. 11 at low altitude with some morning twilight with a 13% sunlit Moon, visible only from roadless n.w. Ontario

• If not too expensive, a flight with a ski plane to a frozen lake in the area might be arranged, but weather prospects are poor

• On 2008 Oct. 4, there will be a graze with a thin waxing crescent Moon in S. Australia & near Broken Hill, NSW at low altitude; Dave Gault is planning an expedition. The primary will be visible during almost all of the secondary’s events

• On 2009 Oct. 21, there will be a similar graze in the Aegean Sea and western Turkey

• On 2009 June 7, a full-Moon graze will occur in southern New England, but Paul Maley can’t go to that

• On 2009 Aug. 27, a daytime gibbous Moon graze will occur across the Boston area; IOTA plans to accept Ron Dantowitz’s invitation to host the 2009 IOTA meeting at the Clay Center near that date