ASTROMETRIC UPDATE:
OCCULTATION BY (751) FAINA - 2002 FEB 08
[Prediction by Edwin Goffin]
UPDATE: 2002 FEB 01, 20:00 UT
THE UPDATED PATH
On 2002 Feb 08 UT (morning of February 9 for Australian observers), the 110 km diameter asteroid (751) Faina will occult a 8.7 mag star in the constellation Ursa Major for observers along a path across Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia.
In the case of an occultation, the combined light of the asteroid and the star will drop by 4.2 mag to 12.9 mag (the magnitude of the asteroid) for at most 8.7 seconds.
This update is based on UNSO/Flagstaff astrometry for the asteroid kindly provided by Ron Stone, TMO astrometry for the asteroid kindly provided by Bill Owen, historical astrometry from AstDys, and the following catalogs for the star position: Hipparcos .
Additional details of this and other events are available at Steve Preston's website at http://www.oz.net/~stevepr/Asteroids/asteroid.htm
EVENT DETAILS SUMMARY :
- Date and approx. UT time of event : 2002 Feb 08, 15:26 - 15:38 UT (Refer to map for the exact time for your location)
- Magnitude of target star : 8.7
- Magnitude drop [mag] : 4.2
- Estimated maximum duration [s] : 8.7
- Phase of moon, angular distance : 12 % sunlit, 119° distance
- Sun : 152° distance
- Rough path description : Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia
The Occultation Path :
- Approximate projected width [km] : 161
- Uncertainty interval [path widths] : +/- 0.39 (1 sigma)
- Uncertainty interval approx RA,DE ["] : (+/- .032 +/- .023) (1 sigma)
- Uncertainty ellipse (major, minor, PA) : ( .031", .023", 106° ) (1 sigma)
- Remarks :
Data for the target star :
- Name : HIP 54826
- Constellation : Ursa Major
- J2000 position [h,m,s ; °,',"]: RA: 11 13 25.4447 DE: +29 33 07.334
- Position source : Hipparcos
- Standard error : RA,DE ["]: ( .013, .011 )
- V mag [mag] : 8.7
- Remarks :
Data for the minor planet :
- Number, name : (751) Faina
- Approx. diameter [km] : 110
- Approx. diameter [arcsec] : .082
- Source of used astrometry : FASTT TMO Astdys
- Number of used observations : 301
- Number of rejected observations : 22
- Time covered by the observations : 1913 May 08 - 2002 Jan 26
- 1 sigma uncertainty ellipse (major, minor, PA) : 0.029, 0.020, 109°
- Remarks :
- Update computed by : Steve Preston, Medina, Washington, USA. (OrbFit).
IMPORTANT NOTE!
Astrometric updates such as these should not be taken as definitive, but rather only as an indication of where the true track may lie relative to the original predicted track. Observers must bear in mind that later astrometry, in which the target star is measured in the same field as the asteroid, may still reveal substantial changes to the predicted track and time of the event. For this reason it is most important that observers far from the predicted track still monitor the event.
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