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This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Occultations
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This is an update to my earlier message about the Toutatis
occultations, extending the table of the better events to the end of
September. Notice the 7.5-mag. occultation on Sept. 25 visible
from the Rocky Mountains region to southern Baja California, event
#25.
The 2 km by 4 km asteroid (4179) Toutatis will pass very close
to the Earth in late September. During its approach from the
direction roughly opposite the Sun, it will occult 360 stars this
month, according to Edwin Goffin's calculations. You can see world
maps of the paths for each of these events in his 1.8-megabyte .pdf
(Acrobat) file that you can link to and download from my Web site
near the top of http://iota.jhuapl.edu . Each chart has two lines
giving various quantities at the top, described left to right below:

1st line: Sequence number, date, star identification, and source cat.
2nd line: Asteroid # and name, central occ'n duration, star mag.,
distance of star from the Moon, and the percent sunlit of the
Moon's disk.

The paths are very narrow, and the orbital uncertainty is a few
path-widths, so the chances for actually seeing one of these
occultations is small for one observer (but better for one or two in
a "fence" of 6 to 10 mobile observers). Since the events will be
quick, good seeing will be needed to see those events where the
asteroid, around 10th mag., is as bright as the star. Most of the
events will be unobservable because the stars are 11th mag. or
fainter, and so are fainter than Toutatis.

More information will be needed to see these events, such as path
coordinates, finder charts, and event times. I'm asking Edwin
Goffin to supply his comprehensive charts, with finder charts, path
times, etc., as he's already done for the best Sept. 18th event with
kappa Capricorni, for the following possibly observable events
listed below, and maybe Steve Preston can generate Occult data for
some of them. I'll extend this list to the end of September in a
few days. After the close approach, Toutatis will be too close to
the Sun for effective observing until it gets too far away (and much
smaller chances for seeing an occultation). In any case, these
appulses, even the "unobservable occultation" ones, provide targets
for finding Toutatis and seeing its unusually fast motion. The
central occultation durations, computed with a slightly too big
diameter of 5 km range from 1.7s on Sept. 17 to 0.9s on Sept. 24.

Seq. 2004
# Date Star mag. Path description

8 Sep. 17 TYC 6366-00265-1 11.3 Tasman Sea
11 Sep. 18 HIP 107188* 4.9 s.e. Brazil coast; Antarctic Pen.
20 Sep. 21 TYC 6374-00196-1 11.5 British Columbia to California
21 Sep. 20 HIP 106729 9.4 w.Russia,Iran,Iraq,S.Arabia,Africa
25 Sep. 22 TYC 6939-00151-1 9.6 cen.Brazil,Paraguay,cen.Argentina
30 Sep. 22 TYC 6939-00356-1 10.9 s.e.Queensland to n. of Adelaide
39 Sep. 23 TYC 6942-00220-1 11.0 British Columbia to w. Oregon
44 Sep. 23 HIP 105814 7.8 Tasman Sea
48 Sep. 24 TYC 6946-00858-1 11.8 Kansas to s. tip of Baja Calif.
61 Sep. 24 HIP 105058 9.8 w.Romania,Greece,e.Lybia-Nigeria
65 Sep. 25 HIP 104809 7.5 e.Rocky Mtns. to s. Baja Calif.
69 Sep. 25 HIP 104896 9.8 Montreal-NYC-C.Hatteras,Cuba,e.HN
71 Sep. 25 TYC 7472-00325-1 9.9 s.e.Queensland to s.e.S.Australia
73 Sep. 25 TYC 7472-00240-1 11.5 s.e.Siberia,e.Honshu,s.e.Mindanao
78 Sep. 25 TYC 7475-01109-1 10.6 n.w. Western Australia
95 Sep. 25 TYC 7475-00511-1 10.2 southern India
103 Sep. 26 TYC 7475-00834-1 8.6 nwAfrica,seBrazil,UY,e&sArgentina
106 Sep. 26 TYC 7475-00542-1 10.8 Ontario-Florida,w.Cuba,w.GT
108 Sep. 26 TYC 7475-00610-1 9.7 Venezuela, s.e. Colombia, Peru
116 Sep. 26 TYC 7469-01394-1 9.9 n.w.India, s.e.Pakistan
123 Sep. 26 TYC 7963-00338-1 9.4 southern India
130 Sep. 26 HIP 102677 8.7 w.Pakistan, e.& s. South Africa
132 Sep. 26 TYC 7469-00404-1 9.4 s.e.China,Thailand,n.Sumatra
151 Sep. 26 HIP 102441 9.5 s. Sri Lanka; Antarctica
152 Sep. 26 TYC 7963-01374-1 11.2 central Spain, n.w. Africa
153 Sep. 26 TYC 7963-00629-1 9.5 Iran,S.Arabia,Djibouti-s.Namibia
154 Sep. 26 TYC 7967-00022-1 9.2 Bermuda, Haiti, e. Panama
157 Sep. 26 TYC 7967-00042-1 10.6 Canary Is.,s.e. Brazil,Patagonia
163 Sep. 27 TYC 7954-01175-1 9.9 e. South Africa (low)
172 Sep. 27 TYC 7954-00020-1 11.3 Rocky Mountains, cen. Mexico
174 Sep. 27 TYC 7954-01262-1 10.4 Bermuda, e. Cuba, w. Panama
193 Sep. 27 HIP 101432 6.9 cen.Brazil; Bolivia; w.Argentina
199 Sep. 27 TYC 7954-00700-1 10.5 cen.Brazil;e.Paraguay;neArgentina
242 Sep. 27 TYC 8405-01498-1 11.2 Western Australia (near Perth)
245 Sep. 27 HIP 100030 8.7 AU-Brisbane-e.Tas.;near McMurdo
250 Sep. 27 HIP 99417 7.0 east and south India
251 Sep. 27 TYC 8392-02130-1 10.6 AU-w.Queensland to Adelaide
257 Sep. 27 TYC 8392-02053-1 10.2 n.w.Australia?, Antarctica
263 Sep. 27 HIP 99661 8.4 s.e.China, Thailand, n.Sumatra
268 Sep. 27 TYC 8392-02391-1 9.5 eastern Western Australia
291 Sep. 27 TYC 8396-00673-1 8.8 w.India (low), Madagascar
293 Sep. 27 TYC 8396-00555-1 10.3 w.India (low), Madagascar
296 Sep. 27 HIP 99270 6.6 s.e.Iran(low), South Africa
327 Sep. 27 TYC 8398-00807-1 9.6 Brazil, Paraguay, cen. Chile
333 Sep. 27 HIP 97810 9.0 seBrazil, Uruguay, cen.Argentina
336 Sep. 27 TYC 8399-02153-1 8.6 n.w. Nigeria
342 Sep. 27 HIP 97935 8.5 seBrazil,nwUruguay,cen.Argentina

*kappa Capricorni; full Goffin chart at http://iota.jhuapl.edu .

David Dunham, 2004 Sept. 15

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