ASTROMETRIC UPDATE:
OCCULTATION BY (93) MINERVA - 2002 FEB 24
[Prediction by OCCULT + Finder Charts]
UPDATE: 2002 FEB 18, 00:40 UT
THE UPDATED PATH
On the evening of 2002 Feb 24 the 141 km diameter asteroid (93) Minerva will occult a 10.5 mag star in the constellation Gemini for observers along a path across the South Pacific and the Tasman Sea. The path passes close to both the far north and far south of New Zealand (at about 9:22 - 9:25 UT), with Auckland a little over one track width to the southeast.
In the case of an occultation, the combined light of the asteroid and the star will drop by 2.5 mag to 12.9 mag (the magnitude of the asteroid) for at most 23.6 seconds.
This update is based on TMO astrometry for the asteroid kindly provided by Bill Owen, historical astrometry from AstDys, and the following catalogs for the star position: UCAC, Tycho-2.
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 24, 09:22 - 09:25 UT (Refer to map for your own location)
- Magnitude of target star : 10.5
- Magnitude drop [mag] : 2.5
- Estimated maximum duration [s] : 23.6
- Phase of moon, angular distance : 87 % sunlit, 12° distance
- Sun : 128° distance
- Rough path description : South Pacific
The Occultation Path :
- Approximate projected width [km] : 193
- Uncertainty interval [path widths] : +/- 0.47 (1 sigma)
- Uncertainty interval approx RA,DE ["] : (+/- .038 +/- .036) (1 sigma)
- Uncertainty ellipse (major, minor, PA) : ( .038", .036", 90° ) (1 sigma)
- Remarks :
Data for the target star :
- Name : TYC 2442-01172
- Constellation : Gemini
- J2000 position [h,m,s ; °,',"]: RA: 07 07 32.0883 DE: +32 41 56.482
- Position source : Pos: UCAC, pm: Tycho-2, pi:
- Standard error : RA,DE ["]: ( .030, .030 )
- V mag [mag] : 10.5
- Remarks :
Data for the minor planet :
- Number, name : (93) Minerva
- Approx. diameter [km] : 141
- Approx. diameter [arcsec] : .081
- Source of used astrometry : TMO Astdys
- Number of used observations : 553
- Number of rejected observations : 51
- Time covered by the observations : 1913 Sep 28 - 2002 Feb 05
- 1 sigma uncertainty ellipse (major, minor, PA) : 0.023, 0.019, 89°
- 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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