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Re: IOTA East Coast campaign

 

Roxanne:

I'm happy to look into this, and I will.
First (obvious) thought is that we are rather few and scattered, so the chance of a single event covering many NEUS observers is slim. In that way several possible events might be good. Ideally maybe there's another event involving a large TNO that might cover much of the Northeast - like (84522) did on Nov 11, '21 or (19521) Chaos on Sept 28, '23. ...Or maybe several events could be identified where the path crosses at least 3 NEUS observers. I'll start looking into this.
There's an especially nice occultation coming up soon on April 8th. Hopefully we'll have clear skies for that ;-)
Later.....

George
IOTA East Coast campaign

 

Good morning. ?? As part of the annual IOTA meeting, we traditionally partake in an annual member observing campaign. ? I'm currently working with the Board in determining a possible meeting date and asteroid selection for the observing campaign.? While not cast in stone, nor agreed to weekend of 14 Sept is in play, along with the Arecibo event.??

In recognizing that Sept 14th is the International Observe the Moon Night,? with many of our IOTA members active with outreach at their local observatories and astronomy clubs, I've suggested that an alternate date be considered.??



In responding back to the board -> "While I agree that the Arecibo event is well worth the effort and when IOTA was a more concentric group, having a common annual campaign event may have more uniting to the members.? However, other than to a limited few, Arecibo is out of reach for those of us living east of the Mississippi and we do have an active IOTA constituency out here on the cloudy East Coast.?

I offered that we try a different approach -> "in having multiple "Annual Campaigns".?? Like, one that supports our members on the more easterly coast and the other for those in warm sunny clear skies western US.? That way, both groups can pick an event that works best for their region, incorporate their local observers, then have a spokesperson? share their experiences with a short talk at the Annual meeting.? It sounds like Arecibo will be one event of choice.? I can reach out to George Viscome to do his magic with Occult? in helping to select an event for those over on this side of the river.? We can then post both events to the membership and see what levels of participation we can draw."

So..? George, Kevin...? while I hate to put you on the spot, but your skills with using Occult 'way 'way surpass mine.? Could you please see if there is an east coast event or two, in the mid to late summer, that the NEUS IOTA group could designate as 2024 campaign event(s)??
We could even start out with 3 or 4 potential events, to give us a hedge against bad weather.?

Is having a secondary, complementary IOTA Annual Campaign for the NEUS group a viable idea? ? - Roxanne
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Got 'em, thanks much!
?
Steve C
?

From: rickbria22 <rickbria22@...>
To: OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, 10 March 2024 10:51 AM EDT
Subject: Re: [OccultNEUS] Breakthrough for Me

Steve,
I sent my Docs to you.
Rick Bria?
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Steve,
I sent my Docs to you.
Rick Bria?
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Couple of quick follow-ups on this.
?
  • I think this is my 3rd small (few km in size) asteroid I've measured recently, and all 3 ended up being significantly larger than the predict said.? Are you all seeing that in your observations of the small ones?
  • Since home observatory was out at about 3-sigma for this event, I didn't bother setting up to record data on autopilot from there (plus I was short of equipment).? But the combination of this asteroid being larger than they thought and a significant north shift make is look like I would have had a positive from there as well.? Now that they are suggesting collecting data out a few diameters to look for satellites, I guess I'll need to run the observatory for future events like this one.
?
As far as equipment goes, I have a couple of cameras out on loan and my observatory VTI V3 lost its programming (Vince is hopefully going to be able to reprogram it for me).? I may have to dig one of my old video cameras out of retirement once the VTI is back.
?
?
Steve C
?

From: Steve <conard@...>
To: OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, 8 March 2024 10:44 AM EST
Subject: [OccultNEUS] Breakthrough for Me

Yesterday I had no observing on my calendar, but the forecast for the evening was looking to be clear for a change.? There were no good events for my home observatory in either OW nor my own run of Occult.? There also were no "go mobile" events meeting my criteria of near 100% chance, brighter than mag 12, within 20 km, and with a safe possible observing site.? By the afternoon, while it was still 100% cloudy, both the forecast and the satellite images continued to look very promising.? I searched my Occult run again, and found an event that met all my criteria except the mag was only 12.5.? Zero probability for my home observatory, but the centerline was only 3 km south of here.? It was also at a very nice 9:20 PM event time.? I was skeptical that my C5/Astrid combination would be able to get good data on this event, but since it was predicted to be about 0.6 seconds, I could push the exposure time to 0.1 second.
?
I was able to get permission to set-up at our county airport (Grand Canyon Regional--doesn't that have the possibility of causing confusion!) and the county visitor's center--which are less than a km apart.? Decided to put the C5/Astrid at the airport (further from the predicted centerline) and let it run unattended, and set-up my C9.25/Watec 910 at the visitor's center where I'd be.? I knew the C9.25 would be able to get the event, and setting up the Astrid isn't a big time effort if it didn't pan out.
?
Astrid set-up as usual was trivial.? I was on the prepoint location in minutes.? My only worry was focus with the telescope cooling to the low 30's--but I did run a powered dew heater that would help some.? On to the second location, and found that I didn't leave quite enough time for the usual minor issues with setting up and getting on target.? With a bit of sweating, I was able to get on target with 3 minutes to spare.? The target appeared brighter than I expected, and I was able to use 4x (likely could have gone to 2x even)--but is was stunningly clear and the target high at 62 degrees elevation.? Watching live, I saw the blink about 5 seconds early (error in time was listed as 1 second in OW).??
?
Packed up, went back to the airport.? Astrid indicated it was happy, but I powered down without looking at the video there.? Packed that up, and was home by 10:00.
?
Great results!? The C9.25/Watec had a 0.72 second event with a 0.02 second 3-sigma (SNR 6.5).? The Astrid had a 0.80 second event with 0.10 second 3-sigma (SNR 3.7).? Astrid focus was very good.? The 0.2 second offset in time was in the direction I expected due to the almost 1 km difference along the path line between the two sites (but larger than would be accounted for by just that).
?
Anyway, after 17 years of doing this, I finally have a double remote positive.? No way I could have done this (reasonably) without the Astrid.? I really need a second one to start doing some serious damage...
?
?
Steve C
?
?
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Rick,
?
I'd really appreciate getting your processing documents, I've just found that neither PyMovie nor PyOTE mesh with how may brain works (or doesn't work, perhaps).? For some reason, it was much easier for me to use Tangra and Occular--they just "make sense" to the way I think (and yep, likely the fact that they have fewer knobs helps as well).? I also had a lot of problems with LiMovie in the old days--that was also a battle to use.??
?
Thanks.
?
?
Steve C
?

From: rickbria22 <rickbria22@...>
To: OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, 9 March 2024 11:11 AM EST
Subject: Re: [OccultNEUS] Breakthrough for Me

Congratulations Steve,
I think Astrid is an important tool for IOTA going forward. I hope to use 2 Astrids for remote stations at some point.
Astrid would be my recommendation for newbie¡¯s or perhaps an IOTA supplied GPS flasher.?
(The flash tag app did not work consistently for me, I would not recommend it)
?
I love PyMovie and PyOTE but they both have grown into a complex ?software package. I had to create documents for both that I follow, otherwise, I would surely make mistakes keeping up with all the changes.?
?
Not complaining, because I know it has features needed by others and/or to analyze specific circumstances with increased accuracy.
?
I could send out my asteroid Py processing documents to anyone to use¡­ or to get suggestions on improving them. Who knows¡­ there may be errors in my methodology.
?
Rick Bria?
?
?
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Congratulations Steve,
I think Astrid is an important tool for IOTA going forward. I hope to use 2 Astrids for remote stations at some point.
Astrid would be my recommendation for newbie¡¯s or perhaps an IOTA supplied GPS flasher.?
(The flash tag app did not work consistently for me, I would not recommend it)

I love PyMovie and PyOTE but they both have grown into a complex ?software package. I had to create documents for both that I follow, otherwise, I would surely make mistakes keeping up with all the changes.?

Not complaining, because I know it has features needed by others and/or to analyze specific circumstances with increased accuracy.

I could send out my asteroid Py processing documents to anyone to use¡­ or to get suggestions on improving them. Who knows¡­ there may be errors in my methodology.

Rick Bria?
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Hi Steve,

There are a couple of places I could try, yes. I've put in the Westport Observatory, but if I go mobile, I'll let you know. One would be in the 1-sigma zone north (New Pond Farm) and the other could be at the Boothe Park in Stratford which would be South of your position and under the predicted shadow.
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Kevin--speaking of remote, any chance you can try (35056) Cullers on March 21 03:53 UT?? Looks like it passes just north of your typical location.? That's my next possible multistation try (after returning from vacation).
?
Steve C
?

From: Kevin <greenkevin01@...>
To: OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, 8 March 2024 3:11 PM EST
Subject: Re: [OccultNEUS] Breakthrough for Me

A couple of comments:

(1) Congrats Steve. I have yet to have a successful remote observation, but then I haven't tried for a while.

(2) With Occult-4, there is a premium to making the event search that doesn't look too far into the future. I don't know why. I run searches weekly, but I have noticed that events appear in a more recent run that should have appeared in the run I had done a few days or a week before. I don't know why this is.

(3) With the plate-solving software now, there should be a way to automate the data reduction. I think about this a lot, but for now it is only thinking about it.
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

A couple of comments:

(1) Congrats Steve. I have yet to have a successful remote observation, but then I haven't tried for a while.

(2) With Occult-4, there is a premium to making the event search that doesn't look too far into the future. I don't know why. I run searches weekly, but I have noticed that events appear in a more recent run that should have appeared in the run I had done a few days or a week before. I don't know why this is.

(3) With the plate-solving software now, there should be a way to automate the data reduction. I think about this a lot, but for now it is only thinking about it.
Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

George,
?
Absolutely true--the event came from my own search.? That is another big game changer.? Still just amazes me how much this sport has changed in the past couple of years.
?
The main downside to me right now is how complicated both the Occult predicts and the PyOTE & PyMovie are to use.? If I didn't have the notes I collected from you and some others, there is no way I'd be able to do the predicts I'm doing now on a monthly basis--I still have to look at them every time I do it.? And when I went to use PyMovie last night it was a real struggle after more than a month after my last go at doing analysis (mostly weather and travel caused).? If we were to talk to an interested person at our NEAF booth in April and show them those notes for using Occult, I think most would be running away with hands in the air.? Is there a way to automate all that???
?
?
Steve C
?

From: George <georvisc@...>
To: OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, 8 March 2024 11:46 AM EST
Subject: Re: [OccultNEUS] Breakthrough for Me

Steve:

Congrats! Nice effort!
You mentioned how Astrid helped in getting this event, but it looks like you wouldn't have known about it if you hadn't done your own search using Occult4.
It's great how good the recent JPL predictions now are! I captured 10 events in February (9 of them with my Astrid) and the predicted JPL paths seemed to be very close to what I actually witnessed - and most had very small 1-sigmas. Yes, it's nice that if you make the effort to "go mobile" you can now have more faith in coming back with a result!

George
PS: I'm working on an Astrid review follow-up....

Re: Breakthrough for Me

 

Steve:

Congrats! Nice effort!
You mentioned how Astrid helped in getting this event, but it looks like you wouldn't have known about it if you hadn't done your own search using Occult4.
It's great how good the recent JPL predictions now are! I captured 10 events in February (9 of them with my Astrid) and the predicted JPL paths seemed to be very close to what I actually witnessed - and most had very small 1-sigmas. Yes, it's nice that if you make the effort to "go mobile" you can now have more faith in coming back with a result!

George
PS: I'm working on an Astrid review follow-up....
Breakthrough for Me

 

Yesterday I had no observing on my calendar, but the forecast for the evening was looking to be clear for a change.? There were no good events for my home observatory in either OW nor my own run of Occult.? There also were no "go mobile" events meeting my criteria of near 100% chance, brighter than mag 12, within 20 km, and with a safe possible observing site.? By the afternoon, while it was still 100% cloudy, both the forecast and the satellite images continued to look very promising.? I searched my Occult run again, and found an event that met all my criteria except the mag was only 12.5.? Zero probability for my home observatory, but the centerline was only 3 km south of here.? It was also at a very nice 9:20 PM event time.? I was skeptical that my C5/Astrid combination would be able to get good data on this event, but since it was predicted to be about 0.6 seconds, I could push the exposure time to 0.1 second.
?
I was able to get permission to set-up at our county airport (Grand Canyon Regional--doesn't that have the possibility of causing confusion!) and the county visitor's center--which are less than a km apart.? Decided to put the C5/Astrid at the airport (further from the predicted centerline) and let it run unattended, and set-up my C9.25/Watec 910 at the visitor's center where I'd be.? I knew the C9.25 would be able to get the event, and setting up the Astrid isn't a big time effort if it didn't pan out.
?
Astrid set-up as usual was trivial.? I was on the prepoint location in minutes.? My only worry was focus with the telescope cooling to the low 30's--but I did run a powered dew heater that would help some.? On to the second location, and found that I didn't leave quite enough time for the usual minor issues with setting up and getting on target.? With a bit of sweating, I was able to get on target with 3 minutes to spare.? The target appeared brighter than I expected, and I was able to use 4x (likely could have gone to 2x even)--but is was stunningly clear and the target high at 62 degrees elevation.? Watching live, I saw the blink about 5 seconds early (error in time was listed as 1 second in OW).??
?
Packed up, went back to the airport.? Astrid indicated it was happy, but I powered down without looking at the video there.? Packed that up, and was home by 10:00.
?
Great results!? The C9.25/Watec had a 0.72 second event with a 0.02 second 3-sigma (SNR 6.5).? The Astrid had a 0.80 second event with 0.10 second 3-sigma (SNR 3.7).? Astrid focus was very good.? The 0.2 second offset in time was in the direction I expected due to the almost 1 km difference along the path line between the two sites (but larger than would be accounted for by just that).
?
Anyway, after 17 years of doing this, I finally have a double remote positive.? No way I could have done this (reasonably) without the Astrid.? I really need a second one to start doing some serious damage...
?
?
Steve C
?
Re: Astrid Feather Case

 

This is great! It will probably be after NEAF that I attempt the Astrid system, but I do intend to do that.

Is the GPS also Adafruit? I've also wanted to make a small GPS flasher based on the Adafruit GPS board.
Astrid Feather Case

 

Mark has told us that for some future version of the Astrid software, we'll need to plug a Adafruit Feather into it in order to control the WiFi access.? He was also offering a case for it, but I decided since I enjoy designing/building 3D printed things, I'd come up with my own.? Here's my first version, that only needs a few tweaks to be finished.? I decided I want to capture/strain relieve the USB cable--in case I drop it (when has that ever happened to me?).? I made the buttons stand up tall so they are easy to distinguish, although I chose to not put an extension on the reset button so I wouldn't accidently hit that (again, I'm sure I've never had that happen).? For that button, you need a pen or similar to actuate it.??
?
The first photo shows it assembled and plugged into a power supply.? The second is with the case opened, with the non-display side of the board up.
?
Changes yet to be made:
?
  • Use smaller hardware--I used #4's, since that's the smallest sheet metal screw that my hardware store had.? I'll likely switch to something like an M2 or smaller for the next build.
  • Make the buttons a different color from the case
  • Cut a small piece of clear plastic to fit the opening, and glue it in place
?
Anyway, if any of you want the .3mf model files to print your own or want me to print one for you, I'd be happy to provide that.
?
?
Steve C
?

Feather_Case_1.jpg
Feather_Case_2.jpg

A Good Night Goes Bad...

 

?
Last night looked like a very promising one--3 events I could do from home with probabilities greater than 85%.? The main downside was all were quite low to the horizon, and 2 of the 3 were faint (>13).? Also 2 of 3 were short (<0.5 sec max).? The weather predicts were perfectly clear, but cold (20 F).??
?
2 were low enough I couldn't get them from the observatory.? They were also faint and low so I couldn't use my C5/Astrid combo.? I used my old Nexstar C9.25 in the driveway--but of course I couldn't get both from the same location, so moving and realigning was necessary in between.? Short version of the results:
?
  • 2000JM5 was clouded out
  • 1999UZ38 (from the observatory), a 93% shot that looks like a miss
  • Roberta had pointing issues and I never got on target (partly because the C9.25 was out in the cold all night, and really didn't like it)
?
Other complications:
?
  • I realized that I've loaned too much of my gear out, so I didn't have a good backup analog camera for the C9.25, so the observatory Watec 910 got moved around a lot
  • My observatory VTI died, but luckily the portable box I was using with the C9.25 was warmed up and ready to go (I'll have to troubleshoot the observatory VTI)
?
Just another day at the office...
?
?
Steve C
?
?
Re: NEAF

 

Thank you Steve

Re: NEAF

 

NEAF supplies tables, chairs, backdrop, and electricity.? We provide the rest.
?
?
Steve
?

From: rickbria22 <rickbria22@...>
To: OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Tuesday, 20 February 2024 11:18 AM EST
Subject: Re: [OccultNEUS] NEAF

Just wondering, does NEAF supply tables for our booth? Everything in our booth, tables and/or chairs, do we have to bring them?
Rick Bria?
Re: NEAF

 

Just wondering, does NEAF supply tables for our booth? Everything in our booth, tables and/or chairs, do we have to bring them?
Rick Bria?
Re: NEAF

 

Sorry, somehow that blank message got sent a bit early.? Couldn't have been my fault!
?
Anyway,
?
With Ted not being able to attend NEAF, the current roster of booth volunteers includes:
?
?
Cindy
David
Joan
Rick
Roxanne
Steve C
?
This is plenty, but we'd welcome one or two more certainly.? Before I send out on the general IOTA groups.io list, is there anyone on the OccultNEUS list who wants to be added?
?
We are also starting to think about where to meet up as a group.? I'm guessing Saturday evening, and if clear we can combine it with some Astrid demos.
?
?
Steve
?

From: Steve <conard@...>
To: OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, 16 February 2024 2:19 PM EST
Subject: Re: [OccultNEUS] NEAF

?
?
?
From: rickbria22 <rickbria22@...>
To: Joan <dunhamjoan@...>; OccultNEUS <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2024 9:55 AM EST
Subject: Re: [OccultNEUS] NEAF

I always attend NEAF¡­ this is the first year I will not attend NEAIC, due to the law of diminishing returns. I can also help at the IOTA booth, which is also a good place to meet IOTA members.?
Rick Bria?
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