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Occultation by (2) Pallas across Europe, 2020 June 22

Asteroid (2) Pallas (9.6 mag) will occult an 11.5 mag star around 23:06 UT on 2020 June 22. The European continent is located inside the path. The prediction below is based on a calculation by Steve Preston, IOTA, from 2020 Apr 28.

The Target Star

UCAC4 561-089839
RA: 19 20 31.78   DE: +22 03 14.03
(Astrometric position with proper motion and parallax to date of event)
Vmag star 11.5

The Path of (2) Pallas

The path of (2) Pallas will cross Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, France & Spain.
Approximate projected path width: 636km
Expected maximum duration: 41.8 s
Drop of magnitude: 0.18 mag


Figure 1.
The path was predicted by Steve Preston, IOTA, on 2020 April 28. The green line is the centre line, the blue lines indicate the path limits, and the red lines the 1-sigma-limits. The occultation will occur between the two red lines with a probability of 68 %. (Map data: © 2020 GeoBasis-DE/BKG, (©2009), Google, Inst. Geogr. Nacional)

Please choose the exposure time and gain of your camera carefully. If the target star is overexposed the faint drop in magnitude could be lost in the saturation of the sensor.

The Successful Occultation by (2) Pallas on May 1983

(2) Pallas occulted 1 Vulpeculae on 1983 May 29 across the US and Mexico. This occultation holds two world records.
The largest number of stations and the largest number of positives chords of an occultation by an asteroid.



Figure 2.
Many chords - negative and positive - were recorded on 1983 May 29. (Plot: Occult V4)

Read reports about the 1983 observation in Occultation Newsletter.
Vol. 3 No. 4
http://www.iota-es.de/onheritage/ON_Vol03_No04.pdf
Vol. 3 No. 5
http://www.iota-es.de/onheritage/ON_Vol03_No05.pdf

Good luck with your observation,

Oliver Klös
IOTA/ES, Public Relations