Reports of November 13, 1997 Jupiter Occultation

Apache Point Observatory
Observer: Mark Marley mmarley@nmsu.edu> Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University

The dome never opened due to wet snow and fog


University of Alberta Observatory (at Devon, near Edmonton)
Observer: Doug Hube dhube@phys.ualberta.ca
Observed with a 12-inch Cassegrain at approximately 450 power.

For the occultation of SAO164156 sky conditions were excellent. No clouds or haze, ~0C, light breeze.
At an altitude of 19d differential atmospheric refraction was pronounced and the edge of the planet's disc was 'a sea of waves'.
The star was easily seen well-separated from the planet's disc 15 minutes before the event: glare from the planet was not a problem. The uneven and rapidly varying edge of the planet became the problem.
For the 3 minutes, or so, preceding the predicted time of the event, namely, 1:54:07 UT, the star was in-and-out of visibility.
The last moment at which I was confident that I was still able to see the star, albeit just for an instant, coincided with the WWV voice announcement of 1:53 UT.


Orange County Astronomical Society Observatory
(near Anza, Calif., (about 10 miles north of Mt. Palomar)
Observer: John Sanford JRSanf@aol.com, Hans ?, and Wayne Johnson

Last night Hans and I and Wayne Johnson observed the Jupiter/star event with mixed success. The weather was cloudy up until the disappearence but it did clear just in time (again!). The IOTA camera was running but with a little focus shift. Good video was obtained with supplemental video rate camera on C-14. Seeing was poor but not hopeless. On reappearence, IOTA camera was running well but there was a slight interruption by clouds. Same with video camera.


Near Wolfville, NS, Canada
Observer: Roy Bishop roy.bishop@acadiau.ca

Cloud in the southwest moved in and covered Jupiter about half an hour before the predicted time of the occultation. At 9:25 pm AST (01:25 UT) the star was about 10" east of Jupiter's limb.


[November 13, 1997 Jupiter Occultation]