Asteroid to Occult Star July 18-19

July 15, 2009

by Tony Flanders

This message is forwarded from David Dunham of the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA).

Around 1 a.m. CDT (2 a.m. EDT) on the night of Saturday-Sunday, July 18-19, the moderately large asteroid 790 Pretoria occults a 10th-magnitude star in Pegasus for observers in a wide swath of land from Florida through Minnesota and past Winnipeg. The 3.5-magnitude drop in brightness may last up to 16 seconds and should be visible through a 4-inch or larger telescope.

See Scott Degenhardt's page on this event, and Steve Preston's finder charts.

IOTA is campaigning to have this event well covered by observers doing accurate timings, preferably by video recording. If you want to provide scientifically valuable observations, please read the information at iota.jhuapl.edu/timng920.htm and consider downloading the free book Chasing the Shadow: The IOTA Occultation Observer's Manual.

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Terri, Events Coordinator
Email: Events@PASAz.org
Phoenix Astronomical Society

Clouds go wild!

Space Weather News for July 15, 2009
http://spaceweather.com

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS GO WILD: An intense display of noctilucent clouds (NLCs) lit up the skies of Europe and North America last night. Bright electric-blue tendrils were visible through fireworks during Bastille Day celebrations in France, while the clouds descended as far south as Nebraska in the USA. Sky watchers should be alert for a repeat performance tonight. Observing tips and photos of the July 14th-15th display may be found at these URLs:

Europe: http://spaceweather.com/nlcs/gallery2009_page12.htm

USA: http://spaceweather.com/nlcs/gallery2009_page13.htm

Please visit http://spaceweather.com for updates.

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Terri, Events Coordinator
Email: Events@PASAz.org
Phoenix Astronomical Society

PAS Photos being moved to PAS Website

I've decided it was time. Chris, our webmaster, asked me to move the PAS photos over to the PAS website for storage, rather than use my photobucket account. So, as of today, and probably for the next several months, the photos will slowly be moved to the www.pasaz.org website into the Photo Gallery. Please visit and take a look! The photos I'm moving will be the same, in the same order, with hopefully the same captions, but now they will be housed on the PAS Website rather than in my personal photobucket account. As they move over, the links on this page will no longer work, and will eventually be deleted. Thank you for your understanding. This will take me a while to do, so you have time to enjoy the photos that are still here, until they are gone. Enjoy!

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Terri, Events Coordinator
Email: Events@PASAz.org
Phoenix Astronomical Society