Single positive chord events give ambiguous results

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Single positive chord events give ambiguous
results
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Here, a single chord with a miss improves results
slightly
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Two well placed positives give shape and
astrometry information
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22 chords tell the whole story!
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My portable setup to remotely observe the lunar
grazing occultation of Regulus on November 3,
2007. Toooooo much stuff! Thus began the quest to
miniaturize
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The picture seen round the World. I sent this
shot of a single video field of the Pleiades out
on December 6th, 2007 showing that our sensitive
PC164C cameras with a simple 75mm f/1.8 C-mount
camera lens (42mm aperture) could see to almost
10th magnitude.

• Separation should be many km, much larger than
  for grazes, so tracking times errors are too
  large
• Unguided is possible since the prediction times
  are accurate enough, to less that 1 min. ¼?
• Point telescope beforehand to same altitude and
  azimuth that the target star will have at event
  time and keep it fixed in that direction
• Bill Gray recently added a feature to Guide 8
  that will produce a finder chart with the time of
  an Alt-Azimuth position as a trail across the
  sky.
• Can usually find guide stars that are easier to
  find than the target
• Find a safe but accessible place for both the
  attended remote scopes
• Separation distance limited by travel time
  total tape record time

75mm (focal length) f/1.8 C-mount lens (42mm
aperture)
Orion 9x50 right angle finder modified to be a
video scope. (50mm aperture f/4)
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My Galileo sized optics official observation
report!
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My answer to Paul Maleys 6 pack
challenge! Scotty Degenhardts 6 pack 1
remote occultation system
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The Mighty MiniIntroduced to IOTA Aug 21st, 2008
50mm objective, f/2 effective f/ratio (with Owl
focal reducer)
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Complete portable occultation timing setup (air
carryon)

• Mighty Mini optics (half of a Tasco Essentials
  10x50 binocular)
• PC164CEX-2 video camera
• MX-350 miniature tripod (collapses to 12)
• Canon ZR camcorder (digital VCR)
• 9 AA NiMH battery pack
• Prime focus adapter for lunar occultations
• Total weight under 10 lbs
• Limiting magnitude 10.2
• FOV 3.2 x 2.4 degrees (using Owl FR)
• System designed by Scott Degenhardt

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(Scottys Mighty Mini deployment statistics)
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Scottys folliesWhy I chose my methods

• One name for me would be
• MINIMALIST

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The more correct adjective

• IM LAZY!!!

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My personal priorities

• Never ever ever ever go straight to the target
  star, ALWAYS prepoint!
• 9 times out of 10 the target star is faint and/or
  located in an awkward star hopping point in the
  sky. Prepointing allows you to pick the most
  convenient time to aim the scope AND to pick the
  brightest star near the most recognizable
  asterism (saves an INCREDIBLE amount of time,
  blood, sweat, tears, hair follicles, adds years
  to you life, takes years off your wife. Yada
  yada you get the picture).
• And starting at the target star means that you
  HAVE to stay on the target star, i.e. your polar
  aligning better be good (lotsa deployment time
  there), your motor drive better not have errors
  (lotsa there), and your batteries better last,
  even in the cold (lotsa prayers there)!
• Prepointing uses THE most accurate drive
  available to man the Earths rotation.
• LiMovie reduction with a prepointed target star
  drifting through at a steady rate is a BREEZE to
  accomplish using the Drift Tracking Method.
• Use the widest FOV (field of view) instrument you
  have to attain the magnitude depth needed.
• I have found statistically that doubling the FOV
  decreases prepoint time not by half, but by a
  quarter of the time!
• WHAT DONT I NEED!!
• While those techno gadgets seem like a good idea
  for a successful observing run, they are a huge
  strain on your time budget. KISS works in this
  arena.
• Holding a flashlight takes up one of my hands,
  roughly doubling the time needed to accomplish a
  task. I wear a headlight to free up both hands,
  and it also is always shining where my eyes are
  pointed.
• Basic parts that I need a video camera, a
  battery pack for the camera, a recording device
  (Canon ZR Models ZR10 through ZR300 work), an
  optical instrument with dew shield, the smallest
  tripod available for the optical instrument, a
  time keeping device (KIWI), charts maps. Thats
  it. (I will concede here that I do use a GPS to
  navigate to/from sites, reduces time) How small
  and how light you can go with these determine how
  many stations you can carry/deploy. KISS

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msThe cost of accuracy for different portable
recording methods
Devices ms accuracies ms
tape recorder, SW radio 300 70.00 21000
TV/VCR, SW radio 100 150.00 15000
TV/VCR, KIWI 16.6 250.00 4150
miniDV 16.6 37.60 624
laptop 29.1 600.00 17460
laptop, KIWI 16.6 750.00 12450
DVR 29.1 300.00 8730
MDVR ? 300.00 VALUE!
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Battery of choice9 pack of AA NiMH Duaracell
2650mAh
PC164C voltage specs 12VDC /- 10 (i.e. 13.2
to 10.8VDC)
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Tripod of choiceMX350
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The proof,as they say,is in the pudding.
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Get your spoon out!
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Occultation Parameters Resolution of an
occultation timing of (216) Kleopatra on Sep
28th, 2008 Shadow speed 9km/s Camera field
rate 59.94 fps Resolution 150 meters/field
Kecks adaptive optics image of Kleopatra
(discovering 2 new moons, arrowed) Asteroid
distance 1.2AU Resolution 0.035 30km at
asteroid
Occultation timing is 200 times the resolution of
Kecks adaptive optics!
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FROM THIS..
TO
.THIS!!!
CONCLUSION The miniaturization of optics for
occultation timings has increased the number of
extra stations per event, the frequency that
extra stations are deployed, and more
importantly, the total number of observations!
Statistically this means the number of positive
measurements will increase, as will our knowledge
of these rocks.
Galileo would be PROUD!