IOTA/IOTA-ES occultation update for (489) Comacina / TAC +03 01572 = GSC 0078-00515 on December 6/7, 2004 visible from N Mongolia, Kazakhstan, S Russia, S Ukraine, S Moldova, Romania, N Serbia, S Hungary, Croatia, S Slovenia, N Italy, S France, NW Spain and N Portugal Summary
In the night of December 6/7, 2004 a faint 12.1 mag star TAC +03 01572 = GSC 0078-00515 will be occulted by a 144 km asteroid (489) Comacina. This update is based on USNO/Flagstaff and TMO astrometry for the asteroid and UCAC2 star position.
The updated path shows ~2.5 path width N shift with time ~1.0 minutes later compared to Edwin Goffin's nominal prediction.
Updated path runs over N Mongolia ~21:50 UT, Kazakhstan ~21:51.5 UT, S Russia ~21:53.0 UT, S Ukraine ~21:53.5 UT, S Moldova ~21:54.2 UT, Romania ~21:54.6 UT, N Serbia ~21:55.0 UT, S Hungary ~21:55.2 UT, Croatia ~21:55.4 UT, S Slovenia ~21:55.5 UT, N Italy ~21:56.0 UT, S France ~21:56.7 UT, NW Spain ~21:57.5 UT and N Portugal ~21:57.8 UT. Please check the path chart for details.
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The event at one glimpse: * date and approx. UT time of event: December 6, 2004 @ 21:56 UT (Europe) * magnitude of target star: 12.1 * magnitude drop [mag]: 1.5 * estimated maximum duration [s]: 10.8 * approx. V mag of minor planet at event [mag]: 13.3 * geocentric parallax of minor planet ["]: 3.903 * apparent motion of minor planet ["/h]: 29.25 * angular distance to moon, phase of moon [deg,%]: 121, 31% * Goffin's original chart reference: A04_1244 The occultation path with path maps: * approximate ground width [km]: 195 * uncertainty [path widths]: 0.73 * uncertainty in time [s]: 12 * map: Overview Asian part European part * remarks: Path uncertainties [2 sigmas] are given according to nominal star position errors and expected asteroid positional accuracy. Elements for WinOccult - use 'Save as ...' to download and save these elements. Finding charts (prepared in GUIDE8): * occulted star is in center - labeled with cross * labeled stars have indicated SAO numbers * (smaller) square box shows 30' field in all wider field charts * (larger) square box shows 3° field in wide field charts * remarks: Target star is in S Taurus, about 14 degrees S of 0.9 mag star alpha Tauri = Aldebaran = SAO 94027. !!! IMPORTANT !!! Purple stars in identification chart are so called 'non-star' objects in GSC; in dense fields the 'non-stars' are often real stars or blends of close pairs. Be careful about this. 40-degree chart 3-degree chart 0.5-degree chart Data for the target star: * name: TAC +03 01572 = GSC 0078-00515 * constellation: Taurus * J2000 position [h,m,s; o,',"]: 04h 25m 13.6103s; +03d 04' 24.093" * position source: UCAC2 * estimated 1-sigma accuracy ["]: 0.040" (0.028", 0.026") * R mag [mag]: 12.1 * B-V [mag]: +0.6 ? * remarks: color uknown, merely an estimate Data for the minor planet: * general information: number, name: (489) Comacina approx. diameter [km]: 144 * orbital information orbit source: calculation Manek source of used astrometry: USNO/Flagstaff (Ron Stone), TMO (Bill Owen) number of used observations: 148 USNO, 24 TMO number of rejected observations: 0 time covered by the observations: 1998 08 27 - 2004 11 20 rms residuals ["] (RA,DE): 0.11", 0.09" estimated positional 2-sigma accuracy at epoch of event ["]: 0.07", 0.04" remarks: * orbital elements Semimajor axis = 3.15375318231079 AU Eccentricity = 0.038613078136022 Inclination = 12.9773493261652 deg Long. of node = 167.1913068893561 deg Arg. of pericenter = 12.0242477396011 deg Mean anomaly = 253.3585372834501 deg Epoch of elements : MJD 53345.91000000 TDT (Dec 6, 2004, 21.840000 h) Path coordinates: click here Calculator(s): Jan Manek ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan Manek Werichova 950 152 00 Praha 5 - Barrandov |_|_| Czech Republic / \ Internet : jan.manek AT worldonline.cz |-O-O-| --------------------------------------------------------------------U---U---