Successful (628) Christine observation from Calgary

Successful (628) Christine observation from Calgary

By Andrew Lowe

(This report was originally posted on the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) newsgroup).

I successfully observed the (628) Christine occultation this morning from my driveway in Calgary (114°05'35"W, 50°59'26"N, elevation 1081m) with my Meade 8" LX200GPS and PC164C video camera with f/3.3 focal reducer. Sky conditions were perfect and WWV reception was excellent. Even the temperature was a mild +5C. My times are: 

disappearance: 11:06:09.1 UTC ± 0.2 sec.
reappearance : 11:07:08.2 UTC ± 0.2 sec.
duration : 59.1 sec.
Since the maximum expected duration was 43.8 sec., it appears that the asteroid was larger than expected or elongated along my chord.

The mid-time was 31 sec. early.

I also videotaped the appulse of (790) Pretoria nine minutes earlier. I was well north of the nominal path, and no secondary events were observed.

Predicted occultation path across North America, courtesy of David Herald's winOCCULT software. My observing site at Calgary, Alberta is indicated with a +. Unfortunately, no one else is known to have observed this event.