Occultation of BY Cancri by Saturn on Jan 25, 2006

Although this is a known event, there is very little publicity about it. I haven't seen anything in the main Irish magazines, in particular Orbit, Stardust and Astronomy&Space.

Occultation of BY Cancri* (SAO 98054) by Saturn and its Ring System
January 25 2006 18h 05 UT - 20h 50m UT

This event is due to take place during the evening of Wednesday, January 25th, a few days before Saturn's 2006 Opposition, and should be quite spectacular telescopically, particularly as SAO 98054, at m(v) 7.9 is a little brighter than Titan. The occultation presents an interesting challenge for both amateurs who use CCD's for imaging and also for those who sketch what they see. It is of course reasonably rare for a star of this magnitude to be occulted by the Saturnian System.

The occultation had been noted last summer by Tolis Christou at the Armagh Observatory, but very little information has been distributed as yet as far as I have been able to ascertain.


Occultation by Ring A : 18h 50m (all times = UT)
Reappearance in Cassini's Division: 19h 01m
Disappearance behind Ring B: 19h 06m
Possible brief reappearance in Cassini's Division prior to occultation by Saturn's disk: 20h 03m.
Reappearance from behind the disk in the vicinity of Saturn's South Pole (PA = 166°) 20h 50m


*Note about BY Cancri ( SAO 98054)

This star lies at the edge of the 'Beehive Open Cluster' M44, and is a Delta Scuti type variable star, with a small amplitude of only 0.01. It is a white star of spectral type A5, and so should show up nicely against the dusky tint of Saturn's South Polar region after the star's reappearance at 20h 03m.

Eamonn A

Thanks Eamonn, I'll look forward to observing this event.

thanks Eamonn for that info. I'll put an item in Arcturus about it (Jan/Feb issue).

a great site for asteroid and planetary occultations of stars is Edwin Goffin's ftp://ftp.ster.kuleuven.ac.be/dist/vvs/asteroids/2006/ . . . I think the Saturn event was only added a while back as I don't remember it being listed earlier in 2005.

another page to bookmark is www.asteroidoccultation.com/

all the best to you and Catherine for Christmas and the New Year,

John

What's the best software program to generate specific asteroid and lunar occultation events for one's co-ords?

Nice one Eamonn, a 7.9 magnitude star is quite bright to be occulted, that does'nt happen very often!

Keith..

thanks for the heads up Eamonn,
If the weather is clear, its worth taking a look.