Next event: 2005 Oct. 23/24 occ'n of 14.4m star by ~250 km DOUBLE object in America

See table below + Map + 15'x15' finder chart (48K jpg) + Labeled negative chart (to come soon)

Please observe at least from 08:05 to 08:30 UT
      Occultations of Tycho2 + UCAC2 stars by large and double Transneptunian objects

Date of event   Time      Asteroid   size   Dur      Star            R.A. (2000.0) Dec
Year Mon DD     (UT)        name      km    sec      Name          hh mm ss.s  dd mm ss   Mag
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991 Mar 31  18:05-18:40  2004 DW    1200  93.5  TYC 0214-01366-1  08 37 25.7 +03 25 34   9.9
1991 Dec 28  20:45-21:10  2004 DW    1200  56.4  2UCAC 32534315    08 46 50.3 +02 28 48  11.1
2004 Jan 29  23:35-23:55  2003 AZ84   568  23.4  2UCAC 36806754    07 12 19.9 +14 04 20  14.5
2004 Feb 14  22:10-22:35  2001 XR254  255  14.2  TYC 1343-00785-1  06 54 14.7 +21 37 48  11.6
2004 Mar 07  03:15-03:30  2000 CO105  268  14.7  2UCAC 39141168    08 23 16.0 +20 33 01  12.3
2004 Mar 08  02:10-02:25  1999 CC158  241  11.6  2UCAC 40185292    09 15 58.3 +23 38 57  13.7
2004 Mar 20  13:35-13:45  1996 TL66   275  10.5  2UCAC 36232084    03 00 28.3 +12 40 41  13.4
2004 Mar 27  00:20-00:40  2002 KW14   302  21.2  2UCAC 24855750    15 34 29.7 -18 18 28  13.6
2004 Apr 07  10:30-11:00  2001 KD77   252  24.7  2UCAC 23658681    16 58 51.8 -20 36 52  11.7
2004 Jun 26  19:55-20:05  Chaos       347  11.6  2UCAC 40137180    04 08 53.4 +23 56 34  13.2
2004 Jun 29  18:25-19:10  1997 CQ29*  158   9.5  2UCAC 34467578    11 04 07.5 +07 39 55  14.5
2004 Aug 08  23:15-23:30  2001 QD298  257  10.5  2UCAC 24989527    21 52 30.1 -18 08 13  14.5
2004 Nov 15  09:00-09:25  2000 CN105  340  32.5  2UCAC 35937214    10 34 08.6 +11 59 33  14.3
...
2005 May 07  01:05-01:40  1999 RZ253* 219  14.9  2UCAC 28298467    22 29 21.7 -10 02 41  14.9
2005 May 29  13:40-14:00  2004 GV9    611  31.7  2UCAC 21548352    13 25 51.3 -25 07 45  14.9
2005 Sep 29  07:50-08:10  1995 SM55   363  16.6  2UCAC 39255131    02 07 19.5 +21 06 25  14.1
2005 Oct 24  08:05-08:30  1998 SM165* 229   9.4  2UCAC 33162437    01 31 09.1 +04 23 38  14.4
2005 Dec 27  09:15-09:35  Huya        380  17.9  2UCAC 30864992    14 20 27.2 -02 54 43  11.7

2006 Jun 18  20:25-20:50  1999 KR16   229  17.4  2UCAC 28922119    14 18 38.9 -08 29 05  13.7
2006 Jul 26  07:55-08:25  Ixion       759  55.9  2UCAC 22945926    16 34 15.0 -22 04 38  13.7
2006 Oct 07  19:30-19:45  Ixion       759  36.0  2UCAC 22946030    16 35 05.0 -22 11 09  13.8

Sensational once-in-a-millennium occultation of 6.5m star by one of four numbered binary TNO!

2007 Oct 04  11:10-11:50  1999 RZ253* 219  11.2  HIP 111398        22 34 06.6 -09 36 31   6.5

2008 Jan 22  06:55-07:30  Chaos       347  26.0  2UCAC 40810575    04 21 06.9 +25 33 27  10.8
2008 Feb 11  04:20-04:40  Varuna      603  28.8  TYC 1913-00670-1  07 18 50.1 +25 43 19  11.3
2008 Sep 10  12:25-13:15  Quaoar     1000 149.5  2UCAC 26249129    17 05 49.9 -15 20 44  13.7
2008 Sep 30  07:20-07:40  Ixion       759  44.6  2UCAC 22496420    16 44 05.6 -23 18 07  13.6
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments

* double object (click here for details)
- Click on date for preliminary path map by Andrey Plekhanov (35K color jpg)
- Click on time for preliminary path chart by Dave Herald (20K b/w gif)
- Path uncertainties for all events are of the order of 10000 km
- Asteroid sizes are estimated by formula: D=10**(3.52-0.2*H0)
- Dur - central event duration in seconds expected for this D
- Click on star name for 15'x15' DSS finder chart (50K jpg)

References

Professional astronomers using this information in their work are kindly requested to provide reference to the article Denissenko D.V. Occultations of stars brighter than 15m by largest trans-neptunian objects in 2004-2014. Astronomy Letters, 2004, Vol. 30, issue 9, pp. 692-696. Preliminary version of the paper can be downloaded here: astro-ph/0403002 (42K pdf, 6 pages, 1 misprint).
Please send the results of your observations to addresses given in report forms: Russian or English.

TNOtalizator

Who will be the first one to observe stellar occultation by TNO? Will it happen before the end of this year? Make your bets!

Current status:

18 observations of 5 events, 18 negative results (Russia - 4, UK - 3, Spain - 3, Germany - 2, Italy - 2, Ukraine - 1, France - 1, Switzerland - 1, Mexico - 1)

Links

Query to UCAC2 catalogue - see more details on occulted star
Ephemeris Generator - calculate object's hour angle for your observatory during the event
Page created: Feb. 3rd, 2004 23:00+0300
Last updated: Oct. 7th, 2005 22:00+0400

Denis Denissenko (denis@hea.iki.rssi.ru)