There is to be a good asteroid occultation for 2:46am Saturday morning 7th February, namely (444) Gyptis will occult 2UCAC 31864315
The shadow path is huge, extending from Wyoming, north of Gosford to Nowra plus small uncertainty bands each side. Below is the path map showing the path (blue limit lines and some observer's sites) as well as the prediction.
The star is magnitude 11.7 and the asteroid mag. 12.5. Scopes 8" and bigger should show the asteroid appulsing (approaching) the star and about 15 minutes before the predicted time the two objects will merge into one blob and will brighten slightly to mag. 11.3 and at event time the star will disappear, leaving the asteroid in view. Visual observers will need to prepare mentally for this and carefully watch for the mag. 1.2 drop in brightness and be aware that the maximum expected duration is 11.6 seconds. So it's important to get setup early so you can become familiar with the sight of the asteroid and star.
This event has a rank of 99, meaning if your location is say 30km inside the blue lines, YOU-WILL-SEE-THE-EVENT, provided the sky is clear and you can find the star.
Owners of Beeperboxes should have sorted out how to synchronise it to UT by using Hristo Pavlov's BeeperSync software. At a pinch you can time the duration with a stop watch. If you are near the limit lines, please observe anyway as you might see a grazing occultation. Also a near miss observations are valuable.
Don't let this shadow pass unmeasured! Reports of positive and negative observations are welcome.
