Just got done observing the Jupiter occultation fromthe Flandrau Planetarium. The setup was an unintensified B/W video camera and a Schott RG695 deep red filter. The process was quite successful as we got excellent video of the event.
Immersion appeared to be a little early from here, although I am not positive that we got it on tape due to equipment problems. I will have to review the tape to tell for sure....
Emmersion was a different story. We were well prepared for it this time and despite the fact that the sun was up and the skywas bright, we could see the planet on the monitor without difficulty, except when a renegade cloud decided to drift across the field minutes before emmersion. Needless to say, we missed emmersion completely, but did see the star off the limb of the planet whenthe cclouds finlly cleared at about 14:05 UT.
All told, it was a good experiment so we can be ready for Uranus in April, but the eequipment and skies just didn't feel like co-operating this time.
Gilbert A. Esquerdo
esquerdo@psi.edu
WORK: Planetary Science Institute
EDUCATION: The University of Arizona
RESEARCH: National Optical Astronomy Observatories
Homepage...
http://www.psi.edu/esquerdo/gegen.html
First, I'd like to request that in the future you plan occultations during warmer weather! Both this one and the recent zeta Psc/moon occulation occurred when the temperature here was -32 deg C with a light wind! Maybe we could move these events to the summer? (Just kidding).
Initial report,
Jupiter was only 11 degress above the horizon in Saskatoon, SK, which made Jupiter's image still a bit prismatic and the sky not steady. The sky was clear, with only a few thin, scattered clouds that kindly waited until 13:02UT to glaze over Jupiter. Observations were done in visible light only with no filters.
Besides constant poor seeing (a few good seconds of seeing every minute or so), condensation from my breath and eyes watering at this temperature (-32 deg C) also hindered observing by coating the eyepiece with ice on a fairly constant basis.
Despite all this complaining, I was able to follow nu-2 to the limb of Jupiter and finally lost sight of it at 12:58 UT, 2 minutes before scheduled disappearance. During the last minutes of observation, I was NOT able to determine if the star was changing brightness or not. I found this event much harder than observing similar approaches by Jupiter's moons during transits or occultations, though the moons are of similar magnitude. I suspect this had mostly to do with the weather conditions and low altitude in the sky. Notice that I did not wait for the emersion event, as it occurs in daylight and local conditions would not make that an easy event at all!
Sorry for the lack of substance in this report. And we are setting a lot of new records with this lousy cold weather.
Best wishes,
Rick Huziak
52deg 05min N 106deg 35min W (for this observation)