1. Summary of 2014 - 2015 Asteroidal Occultations in North America
July, 2014 through
September 30, 2015
Brad Timerson

2. Asteroidal Occultation Observations

3. Asteroidal Occultations by Number of Chords

4. Best Observed Events July 2014 through September 2015
24 August Lampetia – 5 chords
6 September Minerva – 9 chords, model, satellite
18 September Alkmene – 4 chords, model
20 November Juno – 2 chords, model
10 December Johanna – 2 chords, model
10 January Comacina – 5 chords
10 January Bredichina – 4 chords
20 January Alauda – 4 chords
30 January Rhodope – 5 chords, model
18 February Niobe – 5 chords
7 March Marion – 10 chords!
2 April Antiope – 14 chords, model, double star

5. Best Observed Events July 2014 through September 2015
15 April Polyxena – 5 chords, model
6 May Camilla – 3 chords, model
20 June Hippo – 4 chords
17 July Pax – 3 chords, 2 model fit
23 August Camilla – 6 chords, model
4 September Aspasia – 5 chords, model

6. Chord 3 duration well known, but absolute time in question.
24 August 2014 – 393 Lampetia
Chord 3 duration well known, but absolute time in question.

7. 6 September 2014 – 93 Minerva

8. 6 September 2014 – 93 Minerva

9. Light Curve from Steve Messner’s campground remote station, closest
to the predicted central line – “A lucky hit”
The blue dots are for the target star; the count at the bottom is in video frames (each 1/30th sec.).
The green line in the middle is a comparison star in the FOV that was not occulted.
The thick red vertical lines mark the D and R by Minerva. But notice 20s after the main event,
there is another brief drop lasting 0.6 seconds. This turned out to be an occultation by Minerva’s inner moon, Gorgoneion.

10. Plot by Frédéric Vachier, IMCCE, Paris
shows that Steve Messner’s secondary occultation
observation fits the orbit of Gorgoneion very well. The moon’s orbit is known, but not
the position in the orbit, but IMCCE found that the new point is consistent with earlier
observations. The position of the outer satellite Aegis is shown
but its occultation was not observed. Messner’s chord is
6.5 km, larger than the expected 3.2 km size expected from
the earlier data.

11. 18 September 2014 – 82 Alkmene

12. 20 November 2014 – 3 Juno

13. 10 December 2014 – 127 Johanna

14. 10 January 2015 – 489 Comacina

15. 10 January 2015 – 786 Bredichina

16. 20 January 2015 – 702 Alauda

17. 30 January 2015 – 166 Rhodope

18. 18 February 2015 – 71 Niobe

19. 7 March 2015 – 506 Marion

20. 2 April 2015 – 90 Antiope

22. Northern Component with Double Star

23. Southern Component with Double Star

24. 15 April 2015 – 595 Polyxena

25. 6 May 2015 – 107 Camilla

26. 20 June 2015 – 426 Hippo

27. 17 July 2015 – 679 Pax

28. 17 July 2015 – 679 Pax

29. 23 August 2015 – 107 Camilla

30. 4 September 2015 – 409 Aspasia

31. Questions?
Comments?