jyotirvidya parisanstha (jvp), pune india oldest association of amateur astronomers of india...

OCCULTATION ACTIVITIES OF

JYOTIRVIDYA PARISANSTHA, PUNE INDIABY S.GURJAR

Jyotirvidya Parisanstha (JVP) , Pune India Oldest

association of Amateur Astronomers of India

Established in 1944

Presently active in Serious Astronomy observations

With 10” GOTO Newtonian Telescope mounted in our

own Dome + DSLRs

&

Popularization of astronomy

Occultation Activities of

Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune India

Various Serious Observational activities:

Variable Star Observations: You may see the various variable stars observations accepted by AAVSO

Sky survey: for transients finding. We have data of 100 sq. deg. for 90 days last year to find the transients. Result: no transients found bright enough more than 11 mag.

Meteor Shower ZHR Counting

Comet Observations

Occultation photography and timing



Occultation was initially a just attraction / fantasy in sky for us.

Few Occultations we observed as follows in following slides



Occultation of Saturn by Moon (Oct 15,1997)Photograph by Sameer Godbole/Deepak Joshi

No efforts of timing the occultation were done



Occultation of Aldebran by Moon: (Report)

Date : 6 Feb 1998 02:29:54 +0530 (gmt+05.30) from : Arvind Paranjpye to : Joan and David Dunham

Subject: Aldebaran occultation reports Dear David, Reporting here timings

of occultation of Aldebaran taken on 5 Feb 98 from iucaa (the coordinates

reported to you by N.C.Rana /Mridula. No personal equation was obtained.

The "ear and eye method" was used for timing the occultation. Celestron

C8 and a 3" refractor was used. Feb.5,98-UT Feb.6,98-IST With C8 :

19:38:15.95 01:08:15.95 With 3" : 19:38:15.81 01:08:15.81 The sky

condition was good but there were thin cloud. The lead role was played by

Aniruddh Deshpande, Suhas Gurjar of the local Amateur Astronomers

Association called Jyotirvidya Parisanstha Pune. By Arvind 21:04 UT 5/2/98



20th March 1998: Occultation of a 8.5 magnitude star SAO 162764 by Venus (- 4.6 magnitude)

The occultation was predicted using Planetarium Software “Red Shift”

We tried to record it using CCD camera from IUCAA (Inter university Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune)

Due to very bright Venus, CCD was washed away, but we observed Venus heading towards the star SAO 162764.



23rd April 1998:Double occultation of Venus and Jupiter by Moon. It was day time event, at around 2 to 3 pm.

Previous Night Day time Occultation



21st May 2004:Partial occultation of Crescent Venus and by Crescent Moon.

It was fount out that from our home city there was no Venus occultation going to happen. But, from 200 Kms north of us, it was going to happen. Thus, we travelled in between to Khodad, the world’s largest meter wavelength Radio Telescope GMRT location and captured this beautiful partial occultation of crescent Venus by similar shaped crescent moon.

The video was captured, … next slide.. One of those frames



On Feb 4, 2013: Asteroid 1243 Pamela occults with TYC 5507-01020-1 Star

Magnitude 8.4 and Asteroid magnitude 14.8 broken star trail showing occultation.

The start Time was in sync

with NIST. The total Exposure

time was 180 sec.

The cut in trail was calculated

to be 11 seconds.

Camera used Canon 7D DSLR

Cut in the trail



On Feb 15, 2013: Asteroid 2012 DA14 was to pass very close to earth, just some 28000 kms from earth’s surface. We captured its entire travel from south east to north azimuth.

flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. Magnitude of Asteroid changed from 9.4 (while rising on Feb 15, at 23.31 IST) to 6.82 (on Feb 16 at 01.15 IST) and dropped back to around 3.30 am. This event was telescopic event even we could watch it using binoculars.



Occultation on 10th Dec 2014 : TYC 1766-01017-1 by Bobrovnikoff was observed from 5 different locations using telescopes.

The locations were chosen keeping in mind to record the observations in order to predict the size and shape of the asteroid.

Only One team among Five was successful in recording the observation.

Location 3: 18.3899, 74.0138Observers: Ram Karanje, Harsha Kulkarni, Sushen JoshiEquipments: Skywatcher 8 inch Reflector on GOTO + Canon 5D Mark II.

This was recorded by trailing the star field and finding the break in star trail of TYC 1766-01017-1

Image in next slide

https://www.facebook.com/ram.karanje?fref=photo

https://www.facebook.com/ram.karanje?fref=photo

https://www.facebook.com/sushen.joshi.1

https://www.facebook.com/sushen.joshi.1



Star Trail Cut of 3 sec



Oct 3. 2015:

It was decided that JVP need to take an opportunity to join Paul Maley, USA to understand the accurate ways of timing the occultations.

First time efforts were done to video record the occulation of HIP 12740 by asteroid Dione from Delhi.

Three of us arrived in Gurgaon Delhi, with 10” equatorial GOTO mount EQ6, Newtonian telescope, mounted with Video Camera (ordinary Security type video camera) + DVR + Laptop controls. We arrived two days in advance to set up our equipment as well as to visit Paul’s proposed site, so that Paul need not waste his time in searching the site. Also to try to make few more stations.

Laptop and DVR times were NIST sync. We could not make arrangements for GPS time stamping.

The results of the occultation time very much matched with Paul Maley’s results, though real time didn’t match.



Oct 3. 2015:



Our Plans:

We have very good working member strength. Almost 100 young

students interested in astronomy observations are available.

We are planning to make at least 10 sets of equipment including,

appropriate imaging lens system + high sensitivity CCD cameras

0.00001 lux sensitive + GPS time stamp insertion system + DVRs.

One trial Camera is already ordered, and will be in India shortly



Our Plans:

With more than 10 sets of equipment and equal

number of trained teams, we plan to cover maximum

possible occultations happening in India, within

capability of our sets , at least near by to our home

town. With 10+ stations at right angle line to the

asteroid path, we will try to sufficient observational

records, to enable us / IOTA to profile the asteroids.



What we need:

•Finance: We earn through various programs and spend for

such activities. The funds raised by these means will not be

sufficient to make our plans the reality very fast.

• We will try to get some finance from various Astronomy

related organizations in India like Indian Astronomical Society,

Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics etc.

•Not sure yet, if we can get some assistance from

International organizations



What we need:

Guidance:

•We are sure, we will get full guidance from IOTA, David

Dunham, Paul Maley, Brad Timerson, Dave Herald

Thanks

jyotirvidya parisanstha (jvp), pune india oldest association of amateur astronomers of india...

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