Hi Chris,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Screwdriverone
Well, after being intrigued about the "science" of this subject I jumped at the chance!
Well, the time approached and I was glued to the eyepiece, watching the moon approach the small star, closer, closer, closer.... I was starting to actually get nervous as I thought I might blink and miss the event. There was chatter coming from our members all outside enjoying the night and the company and having conversations about this and that. It was getting quite exciting. Then, faster than you know it, the star "hung" for a split second and disappeared. Well, without thinking, I called out "GONE" and the mood all changed. Dave piped up to confirm and then the other members I think were a bit shocked that something happened so abruptly after waiting for a while and were discussing other topics. I must admit, for the first time I had seen it happen myself, it was quite a rush at the time...lots of fun in fact!
Now, my understanding of the "science" of it all is that when you call out "GONE", that moment is recorded on the phone and is determined by analysing the recording to be the exact time by referencing where the beeps are in their pattern and also with the local time of the event, which then allows Dave to record an observation (I assume also by referencing the lat/long location of where the observation happened) which then allows an accurate report to be generated and submitted to the International Occulation database. This apparently (which I learnt tonight) has been going since 1629!!!
The thing that got me all proud of myself is that Dave recorded my name as the person who did the observation so he can submit it and this made me feel all special-like and sort of important because little old me had contributed to an observation!
One small observation for an amateur Astronomer, one really cool and fun thing to do on a Wednesday night for astronomy science!
I hope you enjoyed my "report", Dave joked that I have now crossed over to the "dark side" and there is no turning back now....
Oh dear, NOT AGAIN!
Thanks for reading and cheers for now,
Chris
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Well done Chris ... and if you enjoyed that, wait till you get involved in a graze expedition (ask Dave) and I'm sure he'll organise to include you on one.
Instead of seeing just one occultation, you might see as many as three or four in a minute -- all on the one star as it grazes along the lunar limb. Even more valuable as science so long as several observers are involved.
I went on a dozen or so graze expeditions as a youngster. They were quite a craze in the mid to late 70s at the Sutherland Society. I think the most memorable/spectacular was a 2am one near Cooma when the Moon grazed Regulus. Not sure but I think it was maybe November/December 1979 ...?
Then there was the one I observed mid-winter (1978??) at Albion Park. My station was ... in the cemetery of a church. There were about 5 of us SASI people and maybe as many again from Illawarra observing it.
Great fun. Great memories.
And BTW ... congrats on 7000 jjj!
Best,
Les D