Asteroid Occultation Tracks for the UK and Ireland.
Feb-Mar 2012
Maintained by Tim Haymes for the BAA Asteroids and Remote Planets Section - these are selected events only.
The IOTA high probability events (Global) are here and all the low probability EAON events here.
 Please check the links for detailed information before observing.

With thanks to EAON-ES updaters: Pierre Vingerhoets, Emmanuel Thienpont and Oliver Klös for their regular alerts.
Updated 2012 Jan 28

[ Euraster.Net Results ] [ Observing techniques] [ Recording and Timing ] [ UK Summary and results ]

Selected events obtained from Occultwatcher software using updates from IOTA (World Wide) and EAON (index). Also look at Derek C. Breit's Current Global Asteroid Events

Map Legend: Blue lines are the predicted shadow edges. There is a good chance an occultation will be seen within the blue lines, but is not guaranteed ! The thick red lines mark the outer edges of the 1-sigma probability area where the track will be shifted by a lesser or greater degree, caused by errors in orbits, star positions and asteroid shape (About 65 % chance of a shift). An observer should be positioned within the thick red lines to monitor the star in most cases.

Occulted star: Finder charts and full details of the event can be found by following the link to asteroidoccultation.com in the right hand column. After following this link, click on the black map to see the details e.g. the RA and Dec of the star, and UT markers on the track

 Event UT: Its advisable to begin observing/recording about five minutes before the event and continue 5 min after. Please read the Observing techniques summary, and for a more detailed overview follow this link to: Recording and Timing Occultations

Good Luck, and don't forget to report result, Negative and Positive to Tim Haymes: tvh dot observatory at btinternet dot com
and PLANOCCULT

UT: Approximate time of occultation in the UK.
Vis Mag: Combined magnitude of the star and asteroid. For CCD observers the red magnitude is of interest. Follow the link for this information.
Mag drop (dM): The change in brightness when occulted. A dM of less than 0.7 is not detectable by eye. Video or CCD is best.
Dur:: Maximum duration of predicted occultation in seconds.

Criteria for selection:
Combined magnitude 11.5 or brighter, Mag Drop > 0.7, Duration > 1.5sec, Sun Alt below -10deg, Altitude >15
For larger main belt asteroids: - no limit on dM

Asteroid
Day
UT
 Vis Mag Mag drop Dur AltAz
Predicted path
Details and finder charts Steve Preston's Help page
Jan 2012
Day
 UT
Mag
dM
sec
 Alt-Az
map
links
(3247)DiMartino
29
0537
9.1
7.6
1.5
34 S

Bright Star, complete extinction ! Narrow track in the SW

http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_01/0129_3247_27311.htm
(230)Athamantis
29
2106
11.1
0.7
5.0
33SW

Northern England. Video only as only 0,7 mag drop

http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_01/0129_230_26285.htm
(824)Anastasia
30
1728
9.3
6.8
1.9
38S

Bright Star, complete extinction ! Southern counties and London
Note: Sun sets at 1700UT. Good preparation and GOTO suggested

http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_01/0130_824_27319.htm
(1013) Tombecka
Tue
31
0152
11.5
1.3
4.9
66W
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_01/0131_1013_26290.htm
Feb 2012
day
UT
Mag
dM
Dur
AltAz
links
(208996)

Fri
03

1950
15.3
4.9
25.4
38SE
map
TNO occults 15 mag star. Occult SMP11 C2A Aladin UPDATE
(760) Messinga
Sun
05
0606
10.1
2.0
9.3
20SW
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_02/0205_760_26308.htm
(2494) Inge
Mon
13
2002
11.6
4.1
7.9
56SE
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_02/0213_2494_26338.htm
(41) Daphne
Thur
23
2045
11.1
0.5
22.1
42S
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_02/0223_41_29061.htm
(242) Kriemhild
Tue
28
2216
11.5
1.2
4.1
33SE
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_02/0228_242_26368.htm
March 2012
day
UT
Star
dM
Dur
AltAz
map
links
(44) Nysa
Tue
20
0504
9.8
2.1
5.5
16S
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_03/0320_44_26441.htm
(173) Ino
Fri
23
0029
11.3
1.6
13.0
35SE
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2012_03/0323_173_26451.htm

Location of active asteroid occultation observers since Jan 2010
To paricipate in the BAA asteroid observing network, please contact me.

Links

BAA ARPS web page http://www.britastro.org/asteroids/
IOTA.org http://www.occultations.org/
IOTA-ES http://www.iota-es.de/
Derek Breit's web site http://www.poyntsource.com/New/index.htm
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Vol-1 By Lutz D. Schmadel, International Astronomical Union (Google Books)

Report form for asteroid occultations http://astrosurf.com/eaon/Report%20form.htm
Report form for Lunar Occultations http://www.timerson.net/IOTA

Steve Preston's notes on timing http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/timing.htm
Video AVI processing with TANGRA http://www.hristopavlov.net/Tangra/Tangra.html

John Broughton's page on CCD drift scan http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/DriftScan/

Gerhard Dangl's video timing analysis http://www.dangl.at/ausruest/vid_tim/vid_tim1.htm
Link to a paper from John Menke about the Mintron timing http://menkescientific.com/mintron-timing.pdf

European Asteroid Occultation Network (EAON) http://www.astrosurf.com/eaon/
Asteroid Occultation Results http://www.euraster.net/results/index.html

Aldebaran Graze 1978 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgXbyabAtiM
2007 ARPS section meeting - AJElliott presentation

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1) Send a message to listserv@aula.com
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3) message: subscribe planoccult [ your name], [Country]