[新闻] S&T掩星预警！

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This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Occultations
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TONIGHT there will be an occultation of the 6th-magnitude close
double star 51 Aquarii by the 41-km asteroid Fredegundis, visible
at 8:27 pm CST (2:27 UT Jan. 6 UT) from central Mexico, and at low
altitude from western Cuba and the westernmost Florida Keys.  Also
tonight, at 3:05 - 3:11 UT of Jan. 6 UT, there will be an
occultation of a 10.0-mag. star visible from southern Scotland;
Hamburg and Berlin, Germany; southern Poland; southern Ukraine; and
southern Russia.  Read below about these and other asteroidal
occultation path updates to January 21, and some remarks about later
events, as well as brief accounts of 7 events observed during the
past two weeks.
______________

     The good occultation of 7.7-mag. SAO 117679 by (441) Bathilde on
Friday night, Jan. 10/11, crossing Europe and the USA, will
unfortunately not be visible from the Mid-Atlantic region, according to
Steve Preston's recent update for this event.  The path has shifted well
to the south of Edwin Goffin's nominal prediction, over central Georgia
(and Charleston, SC) and Texas (Houston & San Antonio just inside s.
limit; Austin at n. limit; in Texas, low altitude in the east gives
little time to find the target star, making finding the target star
difficult - practice some night before the event), as well as over
northern Spain, southern France and areas to the east.  Several mobile
observers plan to try this event in both the USA and Europe; more about
it, one of the better events this year in the USA, will be given in a
later message.  I located the target star last night by star hopping;
Regulus to omicron Leonis, then south from there; it was rather easy,
taking just a few minutes.

     The past week has already been very active with asteroidal
occultation observations, indicating that 2003 could surpass even last
year's record.  The occultation by the prototypical outer belt asteroid
(153) Hilda was timed from at least 4 stations in Japan on December 31,
capping 2002's efforts.  But right away, the first asteroidal
occultation of 2003, by (233) Asterope, was video taped at 3h UT of Jan.
1 by Paul Maley and Richard Nugent from two locations in Texas.  And the
next night, Richard recorded two more asteroidal occultations, by (196)
Philomela and (44) Nysa, from near Jai, New Mexico, the first time
anyone has observed 3 asteroidal occultations in 2 nights, and the
second time that anyone has observed 2 of these events in 1 night [the
first time that was done was on Jan. 17, 1999, when T. Kojima in Japan
timed occultations by (510) Mabella and (820) Adriana].  And Paul
recorded a 2.3-second occultation by (726) Joella Jan. 3 UT near
Preston's central line at Cash, Texas, north of Dallas, making 4 events
already observed during the first 3 days of 2003! Also observed
since my last general message was the occultation by (334) Chicago from
at least 8 stations from Alberta to Pennsylvania on Dec. 23, and the
occultation of HIP 21529 A by (392) Wilhelmina on Dec. 27, by Frank Anet
in California and Roger Venable in South Carolina.

     Updated information about asteroidal occultations visible from
North America, Europe, and some other areas are summarized according to
calculations by Steve Preston and Jan Manek.  Updated path maps, finder
charts, and other detailed information about these events can be found
at the Web sites at the end of this message; Steve Preston's Web site
also has path updates for South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
and often other areas, while Jan Manek's site covers Europe (but some
European events are instead on Preston's site, especially trans-
Atlantic events); you should consult them since I mainly list the better
foreign and North American events here. Under "Approx. location", places
are spelled out when they can be, but usually it is necessary to use the
standard two-letter postal abbreviations for the States of the USA and
provinces of Canada (for example, AB = Alberta, NB = New Brunswick, NE =
Nebraska) or the two-letter country abbreviations used in Web and e-mail
addresses (FR = France, DE = Germany, NZ = New Zealand, etc.).  "cen."
means central, and small letters, with or without ".", indicate the part
of the State, Province, or country, such as sCA = southern California,
nON = northern Ontario, sTX = southern Texas, etc.  Unless otherwise
specified in the notes, the magnitude drop in case of an occultation is
1.0 or more. Those especially in the Americas are reminded that the
dates and times below are U.T., and that local dates may be a day
earlier.  The updated paths are final for events to almost the end of
2002, but for events after about Dec. 28, the paths may move slightly
with further updates. NOTE that the times are U.T.; especially in the
Americas, events often occur the evening of the PREVIOUSLY-LISTED date,
local time.

2003             Asteroid        S   t   a   r
Date  U.T.               Diam.,    R.A.(2000)Dec.
Jan.h  m   m    #  Name     km mag.  h   m    o  / Approx. location
 6  2:27-:27  678Fredegundis41  5.8 22 24.1 -04 50 c.Mexico,w.Cuba,KeyW.
 6  3:05-:10  449 Hamburga  89 10.0 12 08.1 +03  8 UK,nNL,nDE,sPL,sUA,sRU
 6 16:39-:51   51 Nemausa  147  8.1  5 44.0 +06 55 Hok.,neCN,RU,sFI,SE,NO
 6 16:41-:43  126 Velleda   47  9.2  6 55.2 +27 34 neRU,PL,CZ,sDE,sFR,ES
 6 20:06-:17  392Wilhelmina 62  6.4  4 32.1 +05 25 Mombasa,Congo,Gabon
 7  4:57-:68  258 Tyche     64 11.1  7 16.7 +00  2 nSicily(low),s.ES,PT
    (Lisboa),MA(Boston),cen.NY,sON,MI,sWI(Milw.),sMN,SD,sMT,nOR(Portland)
 8 23:28-:43  744 Aguntina  58 10.7  6 29.3 +15 37 India(Pune),Gulf
   States,n.Arab.,nJO,Isreal,Crete,eSicily,nES,nNS,PE,NB,ME,sPQ,ON,sWI,IA
 9  7:35-:40 3712 Kraft     16  8.8  7 11.6 +23 13 IE,MB,MT,ID,nNV,nCal.
 9  8:39-:46   82 Alkemene  61 11.4  6 38.6 +28  6 GA,AL,AR,KS,CO,nUT,OR
10  5:29-:38 1027Aesculapia 32 10.2  4 27.3 +23  5 sSC,GA,sAR,nTX,AZ,sCA
11  1:48-:48  971 Alsatia   63  4.5 23 42.7 -14 33 EQ,Bolivia, s&e VE
11  3:37-:58  441 Bathilde  73  7.7  9 25.4 +04 17 sRU,sRO,YU,nIT,sFR,
                                     nwES,sSC,sGA,sAL,sMS,sLA,sTX,nwMX
11 22:54-:64  132 Aethra    47 11.2  3 06.2 +20 34 nFI,nSE,sNO,UK,PT,Af.
12  3:11-:15  738 Alagasta  65 11.4  7 34.5 +19 47 IQ,SY,wTR,nGR,wHR,
                                   neIT,wAT,swDE,neFR,England,n.Ireland
14  1:10-:15  582 Olympia   47  8.8  9 01.7 -11 16 EG,GR,wBG,wRO,eHU,
                                                     eSK,PL,nSE,nNO
15  4:05-:18   95 Arethusa 136 10.9  7 40.0 +05 47 Canary?,sFL,sTX,nMX
16  1:32-:36  371 Bohemia   54 10.5  1 51.5 +18 21 ID,SD,sWI,sON,cNY,MA
16  8:43-:46 1173 Anchises 126 11.7  4 29.7 +25 28 GA,wTN,KS,CO,nUT,nCA
17  0:08-:15  140 Siwa     114 10.9 10 01.3 +14 31 SA,nEG,MT,ES(Mad),nPT
17  3:43-:51  653 Berenike  39  5.4  9 15.2 +14 56 BR,nPE,EQ,Galapagos?
17  7:44-:47  704Interamnia316 11.2  7 56.9 +12 46 Bahamas,s.Fla.,n.MX
17  8:39-:49 2068 Dangreen  33  9.5  4 39.3 +19 07 wMX,AZ,UT,eID,wAB,SK
19 23:44-:45  371 Bohemia   54 11.2  1 54.4 +18 23 sAL,GA,SC(Charlston)
22  2:20-:34   95 Arethusa 136 11.6  7 34.0 +05 49 nEG,MC,sMD,nVA,MO,sCA

Jan. 6, Fredegundis:  Jan. 5 (this evening) local time.  The star is 51
Aquarii = SAO 146067 = HIP 110578, a close double, with separation only
0.35", so the B component, mag. 6.6, will remain visible during the
occultation, giving a relatively small 0.8-mag. drop (NOT 7.4 as given
on Preston's Web site, which assumes that the components can be resolved
and seen separately, but that will not happen; the other component will
remain visible, giving the smaller apparent magnitude drop).  The paths
for the two components are separated by 4 path-widths, with the brighter
component (mag. 6.4) being occulted in the northern path north of San
Luis Potosi and from Key West, FL (low alt., setting in the west) and
the fainter component (mag. 6.6; mag. drop 0.6) being occulted over
Morelia and Pachuca in Mexico, and western Cuba.  The paths are
uncertain by about a path-width, so an event is possible, for example,
in Mexico City.

Jan. 6, Nemausa:  The star is SAO 113086 = HIP 27029.

Jan. 6, Wilhelmina:  The star is SAO 111879 = HIP 21152.

Jan. 9, Kraft:  The star is SAO 79163 = HIP 34749.

Jan. 11, Alsatia:  The star is omega 2 Aquarii =SAO 165842 = HIP 116971

Jan. 14:  The star is SAO 154849.

Jan. 16:  Anchises is a Trojan asteroid.

Jan. 17:  Observations will be valuable for planning the Rosetta
spacecraft's planned flyby of Siwa.

Jan. 17, Berenike:  The star is pi 2 Cancri =SAO 98456 = FK6 2733

Jan. 17, Interamnia:  The magnitude drop is only 0.3.

Jan. 22: &nbspreston doesn't have details posted yet for this next Mid-
Atlantic States event, so I've used the Jan. 15 corrections for the same
asteroid to update this path.  The target star, as for Jan. 15, is near
Procyon.

   The 43-km asteroid 2239 Paracelsus is predicted to occult 6.8-mag.
SAO 59230 = HIP 31340 on Feb. 1 from 12:15 to 12:37 UT, nominally along a
path crossing s.w. NM, AZ, NV, s.w. OR, Alaska & Kamchatka Peninulas,
Mongolia, w. China, and n.e. India (in strong dusk twilight).  No
accurate astrometric observations have yet been made for this 16th-mag.
asteroid, but hopefully some will be this month.

   On Feb. 8, 275 Sapientia will occult 10.6-mag. TAC +17 deg. 3131
along a path nominally from Virginia to Chicago to Minnesota to s.w.
Canada to s. Alaska.  But David Werner notes that the "star" seems to be
superimposed on the galaxy NGC 2711, so someone should check to see if
this is a star at all (the fact that it is not a Tycho-2 star is
suspicious).  The object is at J2000 RA 8h 57m 26.0s, Dec +17 deg. 18'
03", less than a degree from Jupiter and closer to X Cancri.

For more about these events, see Steve Preston's Web site at
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/
for updated path maps and other details, and see the asteroidal
occultation page of the main IOTA site at
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/asteroids/astrndx.htm
for annotated versions of E. Goffin's good finder charts
for North American events and links to sites covering
other areas.  For Europe, see also Ludek Vasta and Jan Manek's site
at http://sorry.vse.cz/~ludek/mp .

I just list the events in the table above; see the Web sites for
the updated maps to see the closest approach time for your
location, and more accurate coordinates of the star and its
designation.  You must display this message with a fixed-space
font such as Courier for the columns of the table to line up.
The U.T. time range is given, with only the minutes of the
hour given for the end time (subtract 60 and add 1 to the hour
for end minutes greater than 59).  Keep in mind the
path uncertainties; States and countries adjacent to those
mentioned in some cases might have an occultation instead.

     Good luck with YOUR observations of asteroidal occultations during
2003!

David Dunham, 2003 January 5, 20h UT