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Re: Next Virtual Meeting and Makhaon Event?
I will almost certainly be able to make any meeting that is scheduled. Although I have difficulty in twilight, I would certainly attempt the May 11 event. Friday nights are school viewing nights at the observatory, but I¡¯ll tell any students attending that they will be participating in citizen science. Rick?
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Re: Next Virtual Meeting and Makhaon Event?
Steve & All:
I do like/prefer evening chats (start 7:30pm-ish), so my suggestion is to look over the weather map, find an evening where the Northeast is sure to be drenched (ie., clouded out) - and just set a time 3 or 4 days down the road. If folks can make it great, if not they can catch the next one (or adjust their schedule so they can). Good idea on the polarizer. It's just finding one that can adapt to the camera(S). A light red filter might help also. Yeah, I often start my Astrid under the metal roof of my observatory. Given enough time (~15 min) it will eventually lock. But it quickly locks once the roof is open. Any metal really messes with the GPS signal. Hey, are there other folks out there? G |
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Re: Next Virtual Meeting and Makhaon Event?
If you have a large aperture, then using a polarizing filter will get you another 25% or so in signal over background (not SNR) if oriented correctly.? I do think the observation is possible from my location, but the time to get on target may be an issue.
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Sounds like we have a topic for the next Zoom session, any other suggestions for day/time?
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I was just loading events on my Astrid, but the GPS wasn't working at all.? I have never had issues with it sync'ing before, and I was doing it at the same location (inside the glass window of the backdoor) in the house I always use.? Then it occurred to me--I put the screen door in last weekend.? So I snaked the GPS antenna out the door, and it was able to lock in a couple of minutes.? Panic averted!
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Steve C
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Re: Next Virtual Meeting and Makhaon Event?
All:
My notes tell me that I'm able to adequately record a Target Star of mag 13.5 in the amount of twilight shown on the attached map - when using my 14.5-inch observatory or 12-inch mobile scope. Steve and I have similar amounts of twilight, and it should be a tad darker for Kevin G and Rick B. Note that the QHY has a tad more blue sensitive sensor so twilight can present perhaps a tad more of a challenge. A RunCam NE2AE or Astrid may be less susceptible to twilight. As for a next virtual meeting... I'd suggest a discussion of our experiences in trying to recruit new observers as a primary topic. My suggested time would be: 1) Sunday late afternoon (start at least 2.5 hours before sunset) --or-- 2) Watch the Wx forecast and pick an evening where the East Coast is guaranteed to be clouded out A great source for looking ahead on forecasts (if you can read a wx map) is: ? ? ? ? George |
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Next Virtual Meeting and Makhaon Event?
Everyone,
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Now that the eclipse and NEAF are behind us, do we want to plan to have another virtual meeting?? Any suggestions for a topic to concentrate on?? Preferences for a date/time?
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Also, not sure what to do about Makhaon on 11 May at 21:31 local time.? It is a pretty good event--especially with Kevin G and Rick nearly perfectly positioned.? Fairly wide path covers Toronto, Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, and NYC--although the sunset would likely make it very tough for those in/near the first 3 cities.
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It is a high value Jupiter Trojan that has only had a single one-chord observation up until now.? Combined mag is 12.4, drop is 3.9, duration 4.4 s, and reasonably high (mid-30's) in the west.? Out here in the (relative) west it is dicey as the sun is only about 13 degrees below the horizon--also in the west, of course.? With the timing after sunset, I'll be limited to a single chord try.? I have a placeholder in OW right now, but I'll find a position on the southern side (less driving) roughly halfway between the edge of the shadow and next observer north unless there are other suggestions/requests.
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Steve
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Congrats to a Canadian NEUS Observer
This is mainly a note of Congratulations to a Canadian observer we might consider as part of the NEUS Network - Michel Michaud. Michel does some rather "serious" work (astrometry, spectroscopy, and NOT astroimaging) from the mouth of the St Lawrence River near Rimouski.?
I helped him get started, and he's now added occultations to his project list. He has a several scopes in an observatory (largest a 14-inch), and uses ZWO cameras. Recently I helped get him a version of Aart's flasher so he now has a GPS-referenced timing device. Just recently he captured his 2nd (April 26th UT) and 3rd (April 30th UT) occultations - both now listed on the North American Results Page: * https://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/Results/Reviewed/Data2024/20240426_549_Jessonda_Prediction.gif * https://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/Results/Reviewed/Data2024/20240430_95_Arethusa_Prediction.gif So keep him in mind when you see a nice shadow crossing a bit north of us. I hope he can capture more events in the near future. Congrats Michel! ? ?George |
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Re: Comments from NEAF
I felt the people I talked to we¡¯re genuinely interested in what we were doing. The stumbling block is from the equipment they already have, to what they need for occultations. The equipment barrier is about to come down with Astrid and a IOTA flasher. If those two equipment items get settled, I feel they¡¯ll be a much smoother transition for getting new people involved.?
Joan and I talked to a ZWO rep that was interested in the IOTA booth. There was a slight language issue, but it sounded like he was open to adding GPS to one of the ZWO cameras.? I came away from NEAF feeling good about the future of IOTA. Rick Bria? |
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Comments from NEAF
Attendance at NEAF seemed light this year (both vendors and the public), and we had I believe a corresponding lower number of people stop by the IOTA booth.? My feeling is the people we did talk to were more seriously interested (putting a hopeful spin on it).? I gave out about 10 of my cards to people I thought might follow through on the interest they expressed.? Past experience is at best 1 in 4 I give a card to will actually reach out to me after the show.? So far I have heard from only one, and that was someone we had talk to last year as well.?
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We did get a lot of interest from the New Jersey Astronomical Association.? On Saturday we talked to three of their members who were planning to dedicate one of their observatory telescopes to doing occultations.? Then on Sunday I walked one of their members over to Bruce Morrell's table to buy a QHY174M-GPS.? He is supposed to get in touch with me when he gets the camera from Bruce--it needs to be shipped from Texas.? Their observatory is located at Lat 40.681793 , Long -74.898047 .
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We did already gain one member to this list from our discussions (Toronto area I believe).
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Our booth was staffed by Joan, David, Rick, Roxanne, Cindy, and I.? Roxanne gave the Pro-Am talk.
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Steve C
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Re: (184652) 2005 SD33 Monday evening
I think that small of a predicted drop makes it dicey for the Astrid/C5 combination.? I will stick to doing it from home--hopefully I can use the observatory to get better SNR.
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Steve
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Re: (184652) 2005 SD33 Monday evening
Nobody is under the shadow, so that is preferred, but so far it is only the two of us. I can only do the one location for this event, and I'm at 10% probability.? Depends on what your non-occultation schedule is, really. This isn't any major threatening asteroid, it is only a Main-Belter.?
I re-ran the asteroid through Occult-4. There is a slight rub which may have us rethinking the whole thing: The event is annular, maybe to the point where it isn't worth trying. What are your thoughts? The path did shift more in your direction on the re-do, so maybe we just "observe from home" if we do it at all. I will still try it, since this observation is really about teaching some students. |
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Re: (184652) 2005 SD33 Monday evening
Kevin,
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Looks like the predict for this one is from 2 weeks ago--would it be worth refreshing the predict hoping we can narrow it a bit?
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Early weather forecast looks good up here.
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Couple of minor issues for me on this one:
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Here are some options on what I can do:
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If you prefer the mobile option and it isn't in the trees from my observatory, I may try a daylight 'blind' pointing from the observatory--as well. My mount is very reliable doing this, but of course this week I upgraded the electronics on it and have yet to point it to a clear night sky. So all bets may be off on that option until I can test it--hopefully tonight.
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What would you like me to try?
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Steve C
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rickbria22
George Viscome
Steve C
