t Y OcadtatumQNewstelter Volume I, Number 10 Ma rch, 1977 The Occultation Newsletter is published by the International Occultation Timing Association (I.O.T.A.) Editor and Compositor: H. F. DaBoll, 6 N )06 white Oak Lane, St. Charl¢s. Illinofs 60174, U. S. A. REPORTING TIMINGS OF NON-SAD STARS IOTA NEWS least, the table for that section, since I plan to continue to collect If you time occultations of stars not David hi. Dunham graze observations). in the SAD Catalog, using special pre- dictions (such as the special Hyades You probably have been wondering, with The first IOTA meeting will be held in and M67 passage predictions) which are justification, when you would receive mid-August in Boulder, Colorado, in computed and distributed by David Dun- this issue of Occultation Newsletter. conjunction with the National Anateur ham, please report those particular We are now somewhat more than one is- Astronomers Convention. Paper sessions timings to him, rather than to HMNAO. sue behind schedule, due to the fact and other scheduled activities will that I still am supplying a major pro- take place 1977 August 10-13 at the portion of the most important material University of Colorado in Boulder. Ac- for this issue, and that the time I connodations will be available at the . FROM THE PUBLISHER . can work with occultations is limited, Kittredge Residence Halls located as explained in the last issue. Work across the street from the Somers- For purposes of determining when your and correspondence related to various Bausch Observatory and the Fiske Plan- subscription to occultation Newsletter ongoing projects to improve predic- etarium. Room and board for 5 nights expires, consider this to be the last tions of different occultation phenom- (Aug. 9-13), and meals for 4 days, issue of )976, rather than the first ena, discussed in this issue, have al- will cost approximately $87 per person issue of 1977. hie expect to publish so kept me busy. Volunteers are des- for single occupancy, $80 per person four more issues during 1977. Practi- perately needed to help write some of for double occupancy, and $50 per cal considerations dictated the in- the recurring sections of o. n. and child under [3 years old. Alternately, creased size of this issue; the in- for other projects described below, in nearby motels are available, and tick- creased size is not representative of order to maintain our publishing ets may be obtained for individual future issues, despite the 'increased schedule better, and to improve and meals at the cafeterfa. The $18 pre- price starting with this one. expand IOTA'S services. So much mater- registration fee is payable to the Na- ial has acctmulated for this issue tional Amateur Astronomers, of which c\"cu!tjtion Newsletter is priced @ that there is enough for two issues. IOTA will receive $0.75 for each reg- $).00 per issue, or $4.00 per year (4 [Ed: This was written before it was istrant. Those planning to attend issues) including first class surface decided to double the size of #10.] should send the fee to: Denise Nye, mailing, until further notice. Air ' The next issue [#11] will be distrib- NAA Convention Registration, 5604 Bow- mail delivery is available at added uted in a few weeks, and will include ron PI., Longmont, CO 80501. Further cost: add 16¢/year in Canada and Mexi- several abstracts of published papers convention information is available by co; add $'1.28/year in Central America, concerning occultations, information sending a stamped self-addressed en- Colombia, Venezuela, the Caribbean Is- and charts about passages of the moon velope to Denise Nye. A 2-hour IOTA lands, Bahamas, Bermuda, St. Pierre through the Hyades cluster using As- business meeting is planned, probably and Miquejon; add $1.76/year in all trographic Catalog data (see PREDIC- early in the evening of August 11 or other countries. All back issues, #1 TIONS OF PLANETARY OCCULTATIONS), and 12. An expedition might be organized through #9, are still available @ 50¢. any material planned for this issue to observe a graze of 5.1-mag. 68 Gan- no and later issues will be priced @ which could not fit [Ed: This plan has inorum by the 6% sunlit waning moon in $1.00 as back issues. See IOTA NEWS not changed.]. For the issue after the Wyoming on Aug. 12 (see Sky and Tele- for information about Cjccultation next one [#12], fixed deadlines are scope, )977 jan., p. 71). Clubs and »"ewsletter en Espaho1. planned, so that we can better adhere individuals who wish to submit astro- to our quarterly schedule. The dead- nomical displays should contact Mer- The foregoing applies only to separ- lines will be 1977 April 15 for mater- rill Manion, 1775 Id. Kentucky Ave., ate, individual subscriptions. IOTA ial to be sent to those who are writ- Denver, CO 80223. Anyone interested in membership, including a subscription, ing the various section articles, and presenting a paper about occultations remains @ $7.00/year for residents of 1977 April 29 for final suNnission of during the meeting should send me a North America (including Mexico) and articles to the editor, H. F. DaBo11. proposed title, to ensure suitability $9.00/year for others, to cover the Information about lunar occuitations and non-redundancy. One NAA notice has costs of overseas air mail. However, of planets and other solar system ob- said to send such papers to Andrew European and U.K. observers should in- jects should be sent (by April 15) to Gassmann, NAA Papers Chairman in Cas- stead join iota/es, sending DM 10.-- Michael Reynolds, and reports of er- tle Rock, Colorado, but they should (German marks) to Hans J. Bode, 3000 roneous predictions, or of observa- instead be sent to me; he will send me Hannover, Bartold-knaust Str. 6, Ger- tions of unpredicted occultations, information about any occultation pa- man Federal Republic. See IOTA NEWS should be sent to David Herald, at the pers which he receives. IOTA members for optional reduced IOTA membership addresses shown in their articles in who do not plan to attend the conven- dues for those in Spanish and Portu- this issue. Material for the other re- tion could send me a paper to be read guese-speaking countries, current sections should be sent to me at the meeting, if desired. Mr. Gass- at P. 0. Box 488, Silver Spring, MD mann writes further about the arrange- Please address all subscription, back 20907, although in some (hopefully ments: "lde plan to devote blocks of issue, and IOTA membership requests to many) cases, I will send some of it to time to subject matter, rather than Berton L. Stevens, Jr., 4032 N. Ash- others (such as Raymond Finkleman, who schedule a group to a set time limit. land Ave., Chicago, IL 60613, U.S.A., also lives in Silver Spring, for oc- I would need from you (for each paper) but make checks and money orders paya- cultation tally coupons). More volun- the title, author, approximate length, ble to IOTA, or to International Oc- teers are needed to write the recur- and a brief summary. This would be cultation Timing Assoc1atfon, or to ring sections, but I expect to do IOTA needed by about July 1 so we can get Cccultation Newsletter. ' NEHS and GRAZES REPORTED TO IOTA (at the convention program organized and I 92 ° t and into print. The final papers will provided on cards by FNNA0. Van Flan- with No~y meets the sea; Finland; be collected at the convention for the dern and I have designed an improved Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania; and north- proceedings which will be published systen which will use cards generated westerrnost Russia (Here and in the later. If you have any ideas or Com- by the USNO tota) occultation program rest of this issue, we use "Russia" in ments, please let me know. for the same standard stations as giv- the narrow sense, signifying the Euro- en in the S'jp;'1emnt. These new stand- pean part of the Russian Soviet Feder- I am now working with Thomas Van Flan- ard-coverage predictions include plan- ated Socialist Republic. The Asian dern at the U. S. Naval Observatory, ets and galactic-nebular objects down part of the R.S.F.S.R. is Siberia). and others, to include predictions of to an observability code limit of 3 The R region includes most of the rest occuitations of several dozen minor (mag. 10.9 for the most favorable con- of Russia and the Ukraine east of a planets, and of occultations of many ditions) and stars to O-code limit 7 line passing through Kiev and the Cri- faint stars in various star clusters (faintest mag. 8.1), so that about 1.5 mea. and in fields which will be traversed times as many events are included as by d totally eclipsed moon, in the are given in the Supplement. Sun and The first issue of Cj'ccultation News- IjSNO total occultation predictions. moon altitude are given, as are cusp letter en Espaiiol was distributed by This will be an improvement over the and Hatts angles useful for reappear- the Institute of Astronomy of the Uni- relatively time-consuming and ineffi- ances, data not included in the old versidad Nacional Aut6noma dc Mexico cient predictions ccnputed with the coverage. Wayne Green, P.0. Box )6228, last November, as mentioned in the University of Texas prediction pro- Jacksonville, FL 32216, plans to do last issue. Guillermo Ma11Cn, Goya gram, and will ensure more complete the computations initially, but anoth- 64-11, Col.