Splitting Antares tonight?

[goober]

The moon is occulting Antares tonight, viewable from eastern states. Is there any chance of a split tonight?

Antares companion is around 270 PA, which I think means it will be a bright limb reappearance around 10:50pm EST.

I'll fight off my flu and drag the scope out tonight, weather permitting.

[bindibadgi]

Looks like it will be cloudy here, but I'm hoping for a break (or two breaks if it myust be cloudy while Antares is behind the moon).

Not sure how we'll go with the split, but I imagine we will at least see the steps in the occultation itself.

[DaveGee]

The event is viewable from more than the eastern states! See map below and times for D and R for various locations are in the text file also attached. Times are in Universal Time (UT).

As far as seeing the mag. 5.4 secondary on the R. It well be very difficult observation due to the 87% sunlit moon. But I'll be trying anyway.

Good luck everyone.:thumbsup:

[tornado33]

I will set upo and see if I can image it
Scott

[Kevnool]

I,m just wondering why do you need an occulation to view Antares companion since Trevor and I ive observed it in Trevor Barrys Observatory on a no special night.

We were hopeing the diffraction spikes would not cover its companion but there it was slightly greenish looking.

But i do hope you get to see this because its a hard and frustrating thing to catch a glimpse of ...just hit it with high power.

Cant wait to here the report if you caught a glimpse ....cheers Kev.

[Rob_K]

After a beautiful clear day, the cloud has been building up over the last hour - moon is visible, but it's just a ghost, and there don't look to be any breaks. So... all set up & nowhere to go, LOL!

Good luck to all those viewing this occultation! :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[PhilW]

It just disappeared in Melbourne. The seeing is pretty good here, & I could see the companion quite clearly before they both got swallowed.

[stringscope]

Yup ........... no problem here using a GSO 8" dob, reasonably clean separation in a 7mm ortho (170X). Antares B dissapeared 1 -2 sec before Antares A.

Cheers,

[Rob_K]

:doh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pne84xMO94

:rofl:

Cheers -

[Omaroo]

I found out about this 10 minutes before the event - so I grabbed my old 200mm Newtonian and threw it out on the porch with minutes to spare. Didn't have much time to set up, adjust sensitivity or even focus, but here it is, a few seconds before it vanished. Couldn't focus well quickly enough to detect the double... oh well.

[Domol]

one second it was there, then it was gone!!!. I recorded sudden disappearance at 21:33:26". Been looking at moon. the seeing is near perfect! Going out now to watch it reappear!

[bojan]

I saw it re-appearing! :-)

[h0ughy]

missed the whole event - i hope someone captured the event. nice capture Chris

[Domol]

Reappearance of Antares & B was great. (about 22.54:45) Could see Antares B well after Antares reappeared! Even at low powers! Easy to spot when you know "where" to look!

[Blue Skies]

We watched it in Perth through high cirrus - it was the club's AGM tonight but a few of us gathered early and watched it through a video onto my laptop. I tried to capture a video of it but the video corrupted itself just before the disappearance and we missed the reappearance because I was trying to realign the scope (it was through an astroscan so I was handtracking at low power). We also had the added bonus of the space station going over just before the disappearance! Anyway, we'll keep on trying to get it right, there's a few more to come this year, I see.

[Omaroo]

Thanks David. "Rushed" is the word I'd use to describe the setup... LOL! Very difficult subject to grab because of the incredible difference in brightness between the two subjects and the time given to experiment.

Here's another without the markups.

[goober]

I watched the event, but never saw a peep of Antares B with my 4".

Antares disappeared at 21:34:05 EST. It dimmed slightly, then just winked out. I guess it really is a point source ;)

Reappeared at 22:54:53 EST.

Great fun to watch - probably the best day seeing-wise Melbourne has had in two months.

Got some lovely crisp views of Jupiter too - superb detail.

[bojan]

I had impression that it took some (short) time before it disappeared completely.. like 10~30 ms?

And yes, Jupiter was wonderful.. I even saw a shadow of one of the moons (Europa) very clearly :).
Very good seeing.. if only it was not so cold...