Asteroid Steins will be visited by Rosetta spacecraft during its journey to comet 67P on September 5th, 2008 at a distance of about 1700 km. Observing occultations of stars by (2867) Steins will allow to improve its orbital position (and make sure that Rosetta doesn't end its mission prematurely due to 1700 km shift :-) - D.D.).
Listed below are selected occultations of Tycho2/2UCAC stars brighter than 12m by (2867) Steins before Rosetta encounter. Durations are given for nominal diameter of 9 km. Only those events longer than 1 second are listed which will occur over the populated areas.
Date U.T. Dur. Star Mag Elon Star
Year Mon dd hh:mm-hh:mm s mag drop o No.
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2004 Apr 09 20:02-20:25 1.2 11.0 6.0 137 2UCAC 38976695
2005 Aug 05 06:02-06:15 1.4 11.3 4.0 154 TYC 6969-00522-1u
2007 Feb 17 17:57-18:40 2.6 9.2 8.2 127 TYC 2430-01121-1u
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Click on time of event for preliminary path chart (25 kB gif)
Year Mon dd Region of visibility ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2004 Apr 09 China,Uzbek,Turkm,Armen,Turkey,Greece,Tunis,Algeria 2005 Aug 05 Eastern Canada, Bahamas, Cuba, Guatemala 2007 Feb 17 Russia,Belarus,Ukraine,Hungary,Croatia,Italy,Alger. ----------------------------------------------------------------
Updated path with assumed 0.06" uncertainty 20x20 deg finder chart to 7.5 magnitude 10x10 deg finder chart to 8.5 magnitude 5x5 deg finder chart to 10 magnitude 2x2 deg finder chart to 11 magnitude
TYC 2430-1121-1 = HD 45822 = BD+34 1373 = PPM 71715 = SAO 59170 = NSVS 7064528 Constellation: Auriga, near Gemini border 6.3 deg East and 2.3 deg South from theta Aurigae 31' East and 4' South from 7.3 mag star HIP 30850 = TYC 2430-0172-1 Coordinates (2000.0): R.A. = 06 31 15.742, Decl. = +34 47 37.48 Magnitude: B=9.24, V=9.25 Spectral type: A
Occultation of TYC 2430-01121-1u by 2867 Steins on 2007 Feb 17
Distance from center of occultation path - in km
Proba- Location Longitude Latitude alt U.T. Sepn Alt Sun
km bility o ' o ' m h m " o o
275 0% ** Northern limit plus 3-sigma **
268 0% Brno, Czech Republic 16 35.3 49 12.3 310 18 26.5 -0.178 71 -22
222 0% Padua, Italy 11 52.3 45 24.0 38 18 29.0 -0.148 70 -19
204 0% Wien, Austria 16 20.2 48 13.9 241 18 26.9 -0.136 71 -22
185 1% ** Northern limit plus 2-sigma **
180 1% Bologna, Italy 11 20.5 44 28.1 280 18 29.4 -0.120 70 -19
175 1% Krakow, Poland 19 49.6 50 3.3 314 18 25.4 -0.117 71 -24
159 1% Graz, Austria 15 26.9 47 4.6 375 18 27.5 -0.106 71 -21
144 1% Minsk, Belorus 27 34.0 53 54.0 0 18 22.4 -0.096 70 -27
130 1% Ljubljana, Slovenia 14 28.2 46 2.8 0 18 28.1 -0.087 71 -21
96 2% Algiers, Algeria 3 2.1 36 48.1 323 18 34.3 -0.064 66 -14
95 2% ** Northern limit plus 1-sigma **
85 3% Skalnate Pleso, Slovakia 20 14.7 49 11.3 1783 18 25.6 -0.057 72 -24
37 4% Smolensk, Russia 32 3.0 54 46.0 0 18 21.1 -0.025 70 -29
29 4% Zagreb, Croatia 16 1.3 45 49.5 146 18 27.8 -0.019 72 -22
5 4% *** Northern limit ***
5 4% Budapest, Hungary 19 3.9 47 29.1 166 18 26.5 -0.003 73 -24
0 4% **** Centre Line ****
-5 4% *** Southern limit ***
-11 4% Rostov, Russia 39 9.0 57 5.5 0 18 18.8 0.007 67 -31
-43 4% Lvov, Ukraine 24 1.8 49 50.0 330 18 24.5 0.029 73 -26
-83 3% Moscow, Russia 37 32.7 55 42.0 195 18 19.5 0.056 69 -31
-85 3% Roma, Italy 12 27.1 41 55.3 152 18 30.1 0.056 72 -20
-95 2% ** Southern limit plus 1-sigma **
-185 1% ** Southern limit plus 2-sigma **
-191 0% Kirov, Russia 49 42.0 58 33.0 0 18 16.1 0.127 65 -35
-242 0% Nizhny Novgorod 44 0.3 56 19.6 139 18 17.9 0.161 68 -34
-261 0% Ryazan, Russia 39 45.2 54 38.1 114 18 19.3 0.174 70 -33
-275 0% ** Southern limit plus 3-sigma **