------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1583 2000 Nov 30 20.11UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074 INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.demon.co.uk/astronomer ------------------------------------------------------------------- OCCULTATION OF TYC 1256 0931 BY 300 GERALDINA, 2000 DEC 2 Richard Miles e-mails: This medium-sized asteroid, some 79 km across, is predicted to occult the Tycho star, TYC 1256 0931 (V=11.5) a few minutes after 0h UT on Friday night/Saturday morning as seen from local areas in England, Wales, Ireland, northern Europe (excl. Scandinavia). Details are as follows: Location of star: RA(2000): 03h 51m 53s; Dec(2000) +20deg 34'05" Observational coverage should span the period 00:10-00:18 UT, with the expected mid-time = 00:14 UT. Event Rating: Favourable, based on size of object, the brightness of the star, the size of the asteroid and recent astrometry (up to Nov 25). The maximum duration of the event is expected to be about 6 secs. N.B. The star will dip in brightness by about 2.6 magnitudes (i.e. by a factor of 10) when observed visually. Although the star is rather faint, it should be readily visible using a telescope of 20cm aperture or larger, and the star will appear to disappear entirely when viewed with a medium-sized telescope. Note that seen from the UK, the event takes place at a favourably high altitude above the horizon in the range, 54-58 deg, and an azimuth of about 205 deg. The Moon will be set and so will not interfere with observations. Observers equipped with telescopes of 15 cm aperture or greater may wish to monitor this extremely close appulse / occultation. Accurate timings referenced to a suitable standard are sought. Start/stop times should be recorded at least to the nearest 0.1 second. Charts are available at: http://sorry.vse.cz/~ludek/mp/2000/1202ger.gif N.B. the track of the path on this plot is out of date - it now crosses the southern UK! SUPERNOVA 2000er IN PGC 9132 R. Chassagne, Ste. Clotilde, Ile de Reunion, reports his discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 15.1) on CCD images taken with an automated 0.30-m telescope on Nov. 23.83 and 24.78 UT. SN 2000er is located at R.A. = 2h24m32s.54, Decl. = -58o26'18".0 (2000), which is 44" east and 16" south of the centre of PGC 9132. Nothing appears at this position on an image taken by Chassagne on Oct. 7.96 (limiting mag 18) or on the Digital Sky Survey image taken on 1975 Sept. 9 (limiting mag 22). A. Maury, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, writes: "I. Hook, R. Gorki, F. Selman, M. Dennefeld, and I took a spectrum (range 520- 900 nm) of SN 2000er with the 3.6-m telescope (+ EFOSC2) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The spectrum shows a very blue continuum and the absence of a 615-nm trough; no other feature is visible except a narrow P-Cyg profile at the rest wavelength of He I 587.6-nm. This suggests a possible type-Ib supernova, well before maximum, but more observations with a bluer coverage are needed. The redshift was measured as 0.031." IAUC 7528 Guy M Hurst