Lunar Profiles for the Aldebaran Graze, March 4, 2017 White Rock, BC -3 min. +3 min. North Cusp Sunlit Route 1, ND -2 min. +2 min. North  Cusp -2 min. +2 min. Oscoda, MI -2 min. +2 min. Narragansett, RI A caption describing the profiles is on the next slide.

Lunar Profiles for the Aldebaran Graze, March 4, 2017 Caption (for the figure on the previous slide) The predicted lunar profile is shown for four locations along the graze path, based on NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter laser altimeter measurements as plotted with IOTA’s Occult 4 program. The smooth curve (dotted on the Moon’s dark side) shows the Moon’s average radius. A horizontal line shows the path of the star for an observer at the predicted northern limit, with tick marks at 1-min. intervals relative to central graze. Other observers near the northern limit will see the star follow a similar horizontal path from left to right, but displaced north or south of the plotted horizontal line, depending on the observer’s distance from the predicted northern limit shown with the vertical scale in kilometers (on both sides). The gray bars on the left side shows the number of occultations of the star by different lunar features that is predicted for each observer, with the distance from the left edge proportional to the number of occultations. Observers will want to locate their observing sites at distances where the most occultations are predicted. In flat areas of the profile, more occultations than indicated are likely. The top profile is for White Rock, BC, directly south of Vancouver. The graze zone is only a mile north of the US border and small telescopes are needed since the graze will occur on the sunlit limb. Near North Dakota Route 1, most of the graze will be on the Moon’s dark side, although the high mountains just after central graze will likely be sunlit. Along the path, the profile lines up best, for the most occultations of the star, at Oscoda, MI, on the west shore of Lake Huron, but the show will be nearly as good in the path across Michigan, Ontario, and into central New York. The last profile is for Narragansett, RI, the easternmost land in the graze zone; the Moon will be 13° above the western horizon there.