*** ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR HOUSTON, TEXAS ***

The following is a reduction of the observations provided by Richard Nugent. The observer coverage was well laid out with only a gap in the two southern observer groups. This was due to the holidays and not having as many persons in the Houston metro area online as we had hoped. Mike McCants definitely reported no event and assuming the shape is as the plot indicates, he was 3.5km from the true south edge. Doug Rask was the northern-most observer who reported a definite miss. The good agreement of the four chords is testimony to the observers and their ability to recognize what was happening. Brian Cudnik reported two brief momentary 'twinkle' events. Since he was outside the asteroid path it is not possible to confirm them. At least four separate video systems were used by the team mostly using the Supercircuits PC164 camera.

11:00PM TUESDAY NIGHT. Arrive at site and begin set up.

12:30am WEDNESDAY MORNING. Conduct test to assure your radio and voice record evenly. Verify you have the correct star by checking from two directional approaches.

12:59am Begin nonstop observing/recording. Look for any and all brightness changes in the star no matter how brief.

1:01:43am Expect an occultation lasting up to 5 seconds to be seen.

1:05am Stop observing/recording. Do not leave the site until your position has been accurately noted (or recorded with GPS).

Within 24hours, send an email to pdmaley@yahoo.com indicating results (positive or negative) and your latitude/longitude, estimated timing errors.

DECEMBER 24, 2003 Circe (Wednesday morning) SOUTHWEST OF HOUSTON: RATED X

The most potentially accurate path of 2003 has now been predicted to cross Refugio, Beeville, and Three Rivers centrally with the north limit over Victoria and Pleasanton, south limit at Corpus Christi, Robstown and Freer. It occurs at 3:00am local time on Wednesday morning December 24 (Christmas eve day). All observers in south, central and east Texas are requested to consider this exceptionally favorable event involving 70 mile diameter asteroid Circe and a 11.8 magnitude star. It takes an 8-inch scope to see this one and video with a PC164 camera is recommended. With an uncertainty of 1/4 path width, predictions don't get much more accurate than this. The star will be 60 degrees above the WSW and there is no moon about. This is Christmas eve Day, one week before the Lacrimosa event Dec. 31. The magnitude drop is 0.8 and this should be easily visible in your telescope/video.

RESULT: Attempted observations were made by Paul Sventek, Larry Mitchell, Charlie McLeod, Paul Maley and Richard Nugent. Only Richard recorded the event with some certainty, logging about an 11 second occultation. The magnitude drop was supposed to be 0.8 but it appears the star may have been a little brighter than predicted and so this confused some observers. Given Richard's location at N5 and the length of his timing, it would appear a slight north shift took place.

DECEMBER 21, 2003 Kassandra (Saturday evening) Tulsa Oklahoma: RATED X

This prediction has me observing with the Tulsa Astronomical Society at their location near Mounds, Oklahoma. This site is estimated to be 20% of the way between the center line and southern limit of the occultation path. An 11.8 magnitude star is to be occulted there for up to 8 seconds. Art Lucas is to observe with his C14 and PC164 at Stillwater near the predicted north edge.

RESULT: A sizable north shift occurred and Art and another observer in Missouri observed an occultation while I observed a miss at Rocky Keys observatory southwest of Tulsa, using a Meade 14, the Watec camera and Collins I3. Richard Nugent observed a miss near the predicted southern limit from Anderson, TX.

DECEMBER 13, 2003 Vindobona (Saturday evening) ARIZONA: RATED PG

An 11.2 magnitude star will be occulted by 14.2 magnitude (231) Vindobona from north of Prescott to Flagstaff in the early evening of Dec. 13. I plan to observe in the Sedona area using a C8 with Rick Schaffer of Sedona. The prediction is on the order of that of Thyra so a shift of some sort is likely.

RESULT: SUCCESS! Using a Meade 12 inch GOTO scope, along with its owner Fulton Wright and Rick Shaffer, a former Astronomy Magazine columnist, we observed a 2.64 second under incredibly dire conditions. Lynn and I drove 130 miles from Scottsdale to Mountainaire under total overcast cirrus arriving less than 3 hours before the event. Our site was at 7000 ft elevation. Unbelievably, as we waited thinking "what are we doing here?",we could see one or two stars. Then the clouds thinned enough for Fulton to perform a 2 star alignment and eventually we could see the 11th magnitude target star as it got about 30 degrees above the eastern sky. One bright Geminid meteor flashed by but the cirrus would not go away. Temperatures dipped to freezing and worries about frost persisted as well as loss of battery power. I used my Collins I3 and Watec camera to sight the star 38 minutes before the occultation. Had we used Rick's C8 it would not have worked because the cirrus was just too much of a problem. Luckily the M12 had great tracking and Fulton had actually located the star the night before and I verified it in real time. Our site was located about 7 miles south of the predicted path. About 7 seconds before the predicted time the star winked out for about half of the maximum predicted duration. All of us watched it in real time on my camcorder monitor. No secondary events were seen; however, the cirrus affected the target in worsening fashion in the minutes following the occultation. Then as we packed up to head home the sky really did clear. This was one of the hairier expeditions and for any number of reasons it almost did not happen.

The photo below shows Rick's Dodge van and Fulton's M12 along with his makeshift dew cap. Left to right Rick, Paul, Fulton. Photo by Lynn Palmer.