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(meteorobs) Non-meteor Event for Video Folks
I got this the other day. I know it's off topic, but some of you folks with
cameras may want to try this out.....Mark
.....................................
>Press Release:
>
> Naked-Eye Eclipse of Bright Star Evening of March 4th
>
>Astronomers need your camcorder records
>for lunar and solar (Earth climate) studies
>
> Early Wednesday evening, March 4th, the bright orange star Aldebaran
>will be eclipsed by the crescent Moon. The disappearance on the dark
>side of the Moon will be easy to see with the naked eye from much of the
>U.S.A. east of the Mississippi River, as well as from the Caribbean Sea
>region. This event is called an "occultation" by astronomers. The figure
>below shows what the occultation will look like for several major
>cities. But observers in the eastern U.S.A. only need to look near the
>top of the Moon, on its dark side, to easily locate the bright star a
>few minutes before it is abruptly cut off by the advancing edge of the
>Moon.
>
> - The figure will soon be placed on IOTA's Web site at
> http://www.skydot net/~robinson/iotandx.htm
>
> In the region of nighttime visibility, the occultation can be
>videotaped by anyone with a camcorder. The International Occultation
>Timing Association (IOTA) encourages as many camcorder owners as
>possible to record this rare event, as well as a selected national TV
>broadcast (use Cable News Network Headline News unless another station
>is publicized in your area) before and after the event to provide an
>accurate time base. Recordings from as many locations as possible will
>allow the edge of the Moon to be mapped in unprecedented detail,
>reducing the current largest source of error for analysis of past solar
>eclipse timings. These solar eclipse observations in turn are used to
>measure small but climactically significant variations of the solar
>diameter, possibly shedding light on the controversy of how much the
>current global warming trend is due to increased buring of fossil fuels
>and how much of it is due to natural variations of the Sun. But the use
>of solar eclipse timings for this purpose is now limited by our
>knowledge of the lunar topography.
>
> Camcorder users should do the following:
>
>1. Find Aldebaran about half an hour before the disappearance, making
> sure that you can focus the camcorder on the Moon and zoom in to
> see the star, and possibly the dark edge of the Moon, which is
> faintly illuminated by "Earthshine", sunlight reflected from the
> Earth.
>2. Five minutes before the disappearance, turn on your camcorder and
> record a minute of CNN Headline News (or a local station if one is
> publicized).
>3. Keeping the camcorder recording, go outside and record the Moon and
> Aldebaran.
>4. Just after Aldebaran disappears, go back to your TV and record
> another minute of CNN Headline News, with the camcorder running the
> whole time.
>5. Turn off the camcorder. If successful, either send the tape to a
> local IOTA coordinator or to: Thomas Campbell, Jr.; 13418
> Thomasville Circle; Tampa, FL 33617 (phone 813-985-1842). Enclose
> with the tape a diagram showing about how far you were from the
> center of the nearest street, and then the distance along the
> street to the center of the nearest intersecting street. You can
> just pace the distances; we need an accuracy of about 10 feet.
>
>If your camcorder has an electronic "anti-shake" feature, turn it off.
>It delays the video signal relative to the audio signal, degrading the
>timing accuracy. If you have a shortwave radio, please also record WWV
>time signals at 5.0 or 10.0 megahertz during the observation. Any
>observations that you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
>
> The occultation occurs in bright twilight from Illinois to the
>Florida panhandle. In that area, the star should be visible and
>recordable with camcorders, but with more difficulty in the western part
>of the zone. The occultation will not be visible north of a line passing
>30 miles south of Minneapolis; near Green Bay, Wisc.; 25 miles south of
>Mackinaw City, Mich.; 10 miles south of Ottawa, Ont.; along the U.S.-
>Quebec border crossing into northeastern Vermont; and a few miles south
>of Bangor, Maine. Within a mile or two of this line, the star will just
>graze the northern edge of the Moon, disappearing and reappearing
>several times among the lunar mountains and craters. A few IOTA
>expeditions will attempt to record the graze.
>
> The table below gives the local time of the occultation for the
>major cities shown on the moonview on the first page, as well as the
>twilight conditions at the time of the disappearance. The occultation
>will also be visible from the southwestern U.S.A. and Mexico, but before
>sunset. A telescope is needed to see the star in the daytime sky. Only
>observers with telescopes can record or see the reappearance on the
>bright side of the Moon. Others will notice the star only a minute or
>more after the true reappearance and will not be able to time it.
>
> Conditions at Disappearance
>Location Disappears Reappears Twilight Star's Visibility
>
>Atlanta GA 7:06 pm 8:26 pm EST moderate star visible
>Boston MA 7:46 pm 8:24 pm EST none easy
>Chicago IL 6:16 pm 7:02 pm CST moderate star visible
>Detroit MI 7:25 pm 8:09 pm EST faint easy
>Hamilton Bermuda 8:45 pm 9:56 pm AST none easy
>Miami FL 7:13 pm 8:39 pm EST faint easy
>New York City NY 7:37 pm 8:27 pm EST none easy
>Philadelphia PA 7:33 pm 8:28 pm EST none easy
>San Juan PR 8:54 pm 10:00 pm AST none easy
>Tampa FL 7:07 pm 8:34 pm EST some easy
>Toronto ON 7:37 pm 8:08 pm EST very faint easy
>Washington DC 7:28 pm 8:29 pm EST very faint easy
>Jacksonville FL 7:09 pm 8:35 pm EST faint easy
>Norfolk VA 7:26 pm 8:34 pm EST very faint easy
>St. Louis MO 6:03 pm 7:07 pm CST bright difficult
>
>Data for 267 cities are given on IOTA's Web site at
>http://www.skydot net/~robinson/iotandx.htm that also has some maps showing
>the region of visibility. A local-time map of the eastern U.S.A. will
>soon be added so that at least the time of the disappearance can be
>estimated to a minute or two for any location in the area. Additional
>information about this occultation and about camcorder observations is
>given in the March issue of Sky and Telescope magazine and at
>http://www.skypub.com/occults/occults.html
>
> I will be in Venezuela Feb. 21st to March 1st to observe the total
>solar eclipse on the 26th. On Feb. 21 pm to Feb 24 am, I will be in
>Caracas reachable via Jaimi Giacomin at 58-2-5770389 or
>jclovera@eldishdot net. On Feb. 24 pm to Feb. 28 am, I will be at the
>Miranda Cumberland Hotel in Coro, phone 58-68-523022, fax 58-68-513096.
>On March 2 and 3, I will be in my office at Johns Hopkins University
>Applied Physics Laboratory, phone 240-228-5609, email
>david.dunham@jhuapldot edu or dunham@erols.com. On March 4, I expect to be
>travelling to the northern limit graze line. While I am away, IOTA
>member Jim Hart, in Belmont, Calif. (phones home 650-593-8687, office
>510-745-3972, e-mail jphart@anomalies.com), can answer questions about
>this project and can provide local moonviews for publication.
>
>David W. Dunham, IOTA, February 20, 1998