Last night, Ice-In-Space member AstroJunk observed a 12.2 second occultation of the trans-Neptunian object 2002 VE95 from south Queensland. It's the first time VE95 has been seen in occultation, and the occultation has already garnered interest from the science community.
While VE95 has an apparent magnitude of +20, and thus is pretty well invisible to all but Large Scopes, the occultation was of a mag. +14.5 star which is much more do-able with telescopes that amateurs can acquire.
VE95 is about 29 AU from earth at present, close to perihelion; at aphelion it is around 40AU distant.
Previously VE95 had a diameter determined from photometry of about 248km +/- 13km; the occultation means it is likely to be at least 30km larger than this.
For more info on VE95, see the wiki here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(55638)_2002_VE95
Unfortunately Sydney did not fare as well with either weather or shadow.
Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG