1. Jyotirvidya Parisanstha (JVP), Pune India Oldest association of Amateur Astronomers of India Established in 1944 Presently active in Serious Astronomy observations With 10” GOTO Newtonian Telescope mounted in our own Dome + DSLRs & Popularization of astronomy

2. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India Various Serious Observational activities:  Variable Star Observations: You may see the various variable stars observations accepted by AAVSO  Sky survey: for transients finding. We have data of 100 sq. deg. for 90 days last year to find the transients. Result: no transients found bright enough more than 11 mag.  Meteor Shower ZHR Counting  Comet Observations  Occultation photography and timing

3. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India  Occultation was initially a just attraction / fantasy in sky for us.  Few Occultations we observed as follows in following slides

4. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India  Occultation of Saturn by Moon (Oct 15,1997) Photograph by Sameer Godbole/Deepak Joshi  No efforts of timing the occultation were done

5. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India Occultation of Aldebran by Moon: (Report)  Date : 6 Feb 1998 02:29:54 +0530 (gmt+05.30) from : Arvind Paranjpye to : Joan and David Dunham  Subject: Aldebaran occultation reports Dear David, Reporting here timings of occultation of Aldebaran taken on 5 Feb 98 from iucaa (the coordinates reported to you by N.C.Rana /Mridula. No personal equation was obtained. The "ear and eye method" was used for timing the occultation. Celestron C8 and a 3" refractor was used. Feb.5,98-UT Feb.6,98-IST With C8 : 19:38:15.95 01:08:15.95 With 3" : 19:38:15.81 01:08:15.81 The sky condition was good but there were thin cloud. The lead role was played by Aniruddh Deshpande, Suhas Gurjar of the local Amateur Astronomers Association called Jyotirvidya Parisanstha Pune. By Arvind 21:04 UT 5/2/98

6. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India 20 th March 1998: Occultation of a 8.5 magnitude star SAO 162764 by Venus (- 4.6 magnitude) The occultation was predicted using Planetarium Software “Red Shift” We tried to record it using CCD camera from IUCAA (Inter university Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune) Due to very bright Venus, CCD was washed away, but we observed Venus heading towards the star SAO 162764.

7. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India  23 rd April 1998:Double occultation of Venus and Jupiter by Moon. It was day time event, at around 2 to 3 pm. Previous Night Day time Occultation

8. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India  21 st May 2004:Partial occultation of Crescent Venus and by Crescent Moon. It was fount out that from our home city there was no Venus occultation going to happen. But, from 200 Kms north of us, it was going to happen. Thus, we travelled in between to Khodad, the world’s largest meter wavelength Radio Telescope GMRT location and captured this beautiful partial occultation of crescent Venus by similar shaped crescent moon. The video was captured, … next slide.. One of those frames

9. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India

10. On Feb 4, 2013: Asteroid 1243 Pamela occults with TYC 5507-01020-1 Star Magnitude 8.4 and Asteroid magnitude 14.8 broken star trail showing occultation. The start Time was in sync with NIST. The total Exposure time was 180 sec. The cut in trail was calculated to be 11 seconds. Camera used Canon 7D DSLR Cut in the trail

11. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India On Feb 15, 2013: Asteroid 2012 DA14 was to pass very close to earth, just some 28000 kms from earth’s surface. We captured its entire travel from south east to north azimuth. flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. Magnitude of Asteroid changed from 9.4 (while rising on Feb 15, at 23.31 IST) to 6.82 (on Feb 16 at 01.15 IST) and dropped back to around 3.30 am. This event was telescopic event even we could watch it using binoculars.

12. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India  Occultation on 10th Dec 2014 : TYC 1766-01017-1 by Bobrovnikoff was observed from 5 different locations using telescopes. The locations were chosen keeping in mind to record the observations in order to predict the size and shape of the asteroid. Only One team among Five was successful in recording the observation. Location 3: 18.3899, 74.0138 Observers: Ram Karanje, Harsha Kulkarni, Sushen Joshi Equipments: Skywatcher 8 inch Reflector on GOTO + Canon 5D Mark II.Ram KaranjeSushen Joshi  This was recorded by trailing the star field and finding the break in star trail of TYC 1766-01017-1  Image in next slide

13. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India Star Trail Cut of 3 sec

14. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India  Oct 3. 2015: It was decided that JVP need to take an opportunity to join Paul Maley, USA to understand the accurate ways of timing the occultations. First time efforts were done to video record the occulation of HIP 12740 by asteroid Dione from Delhi. Three of us arrived in Gurgaon Delhi, with 10” equatorial GOTO mount EQ6, Newtonian telescope, mounted with Video Camera (ordinary Security type video camera) + DVR + Laptop controls. We arrived two days in advance to set up our equipment as well as to visit Paul’s proposed site, so that Paul need not waste his time in searching the site. Also to try to make few more stations. Laptop and DVR times were NIST sync. We could not make arrangements for GPS time stamping. The results of the occultation time very much matched with Paul Maley’s results, though real time didn’t match.

15. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India  Oct 3. 2015:

16. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India Our Plans: We have very good working member strength. Almost 100 young students interested in astronomy observations are available. We are planning to make at least 10 sets of equipment including, appropriate imaging lens system + high sensitivity CCD cameras 0.00001 lux sensitive + GPS time stamp insertion system + DVRs. One trial Camera is already ordered, and will be in India shortly

17. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India Our Plans: With more than 10 sets of equipment and equal number of trained teams, we plan to cover maximum possible occultations happening in India, within capability of our sets, at least near by to our home town. With 10+ stations at right angle line to the asteroid path, we will try to sufficient observational records, to enable us / IOTA to profile the asteroids.

18. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India What we need: Finance : We earn through various programs and spend for such activities. The funds raised by these means will not be sufficient to make our plans the reality very fast. We will try to get some finance from various Astronomy related organizations in India like Indian Astronomical Society, Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics etc. Not sure yet, if we can get some assistance from International organizations

19. Occultation Activities of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India What we need: Guidance: We are sure, we will get full guidance from IOTA, David Dunham, Paul Maley, Brad Timerson, Dave Herald

20. Thanks