The morning of Friday the 26th, minor planet Palma will pass in front of a relatively bight star as seen from much of northern Utah. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/PALMAOCCULT.JPG While this event should be pretty easy to see with just binoculars from dark sky locations the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) is recruiting folks with modest astronomical resources to nab and report data of the event. One of IOTA's most active participants, Paul Maley, will be in the area videoing the event and recently posted the following to the OAS listserve: There is the best asteroid occultation of a 6.3 magnitude star in all of 2007 occurring right over you Friday morning at 247am your time Jan 26. The star will be occulted for up to a max of 14 seconds. It is positioned about 63 degrees above the western sky. What is needed is the following: a. a telescope capable of spotting a 6.3 magnitude star b. time signal receiver that can pick up time signals from WWV on 5.0 or 10.0 MHz or similar frequency c. tape recorder Anybody with more sophisticated recording gear like video (preferred) would be welcome, but it is mandatory to record time along with the data. The observer with minimal equipment watches the star which will drop from 6.3 to 10.5 magnitude during the occultation. So it will be very easy to detect. The observer stars 2 minutes before looking for ANY occultation. It is possible this asteroid called Palma may have a satellite. If it does a shorter occultation could occur separate from the main one. Continue nonstop observing for 4 minutes. So, for you, this means to star watching at 245am and end at 249am expecting the occultation at 2.47.00am more or less. The observer should start the recorder at 245 and keep it going the whole time, recording his/her voice and the time signals. Be careful that the time signals are recorded as well as voice so one does not drown out the other. When the star goes out, call OUT; when it returns, call BACK. Other than that the observer must keep quiet. After the star comes back, the observer should mention on the tape the expected delay in the times of the OUT and BACK calls. We need to know how accurate each call out was. Time of each event must be to within .1 seconds or better. Again, if somebody observes an occultation without time data,it is pretty much useless information. The best distribution of observers is in a north south direction perpendicular to the path so we can get unique geographic distribution. The closer to the green line, the longer the occultation. The most VALUABLE data points are those closest to the edges of the path. I hope to fly up to Salt Lake Thursday night Jan 25 in time to see this if the weather is good. I will plan to bring a scope with me unless you might be able to coordinate someone with a Celestron 8 or similar that I could team with. I will plan to fly in Thursday night and then fly back right after the occultation. There is a Continental flight at 530am. Now, the link to the map, star charts, and other data is http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2007_01/0126_372_8206.htm I am also attaching a local map showing the center of the occultation path (green line) and the predicted zone of visibility (two blue lines) as well as the maximum expected path errors north and south (red lines). If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email me. Looking forward to having a good turnout. Please confirm if you have positive response from competent observers who will try this. I would like to know names, locations, and instrumentation as you are able to find them out. Paul Maley, pdmaley@yahoo.com NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society Houston TX