Astronomical League Occultation Program Status

Steve ConardTed BlankInternational Occultation Timing Association (IOTA)Oct 05, 2013

Reason for the Program Our reason for trying to get this program

accepted has been only to try to get more occultation observers

We need to recruit more participants to have more successful data collection events, through means such as: Information tables at various astronomy shows Giving talks at local astronomy clubs and star

parties Using the AL observing program

History

Steve proposed this idea to IOTA at the 2010 meeting, and received approval to go forward with it

Developed the requirements for this program (note—these use to be called “clubs” by AL, but this has recently changed) Had input from a fair number of IOTA members

Not accepted at the 2012 AL meeting AL recommended we resubmit in 2013

AL 2013 Meeting

As Steve was unable to go to the Atlanta meeting, Ted Blank volunteered to go and present to the approval board Ted also did a general talk on our occultation

work at the meeting The board asked if IOTA could pay for the

pins required for the program Up to the IOTA officers/board to determine if

IOTA will fund this The program, as well as 2 other new

programs, was accepted

Program Now Open

Now listed on the AL website:

http://www.astroleague.org/content/occultation-program

There have been about 4 inquiries to date about requirements All have indicated they are going to

participate

Requirements

There has been some misunderstanding of the requirements and how they were arrived at: 7 successful observations of asteroid events, with only one

required to be a positive▪ 3 must have the asteroid visible and be recorded or sketched as it

approaches the star 15 total lunar occultations, over 5 different dates▪ 1 must be a double star▪ 3 must be reappearances

3 lunar grazes successfully observed▪ 1 must have had multiple events

There were multiple reviews of these requirements (by a number of officers and other IOTA members, as well as by the AL), and each review resulted in the requirements being simplified