MULTI-STATION COOPERATIVE ASTEROID OCCULTATION SCIENCE

WITH SWRI

Paul D. Maley/IOTA And

Bill Merline/Southwest Research Institute

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BACKGROUND

-SwRI has innate interest in asteroid satellite discovery

-IOTA key goal is to discover/confirm asteroid satellites

-Multi-station techniques are the current best methodology of enabling such a discovery

-Proposal grew from presentation made by IOTA at Colorado conference in 2008

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BEST DETECTION EVIDENCE

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DATA OBTAINED FROM INDIVIDUAL OBSERVERS, NOT MULTI-STATION TECHNIQUE

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BEST EVIDENCE OF ONE OBSERVER AND MULTI-STATION METHOD

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PROJECT DEFINITION• IOTA TO DEFINE EVENTS OF INTEREST TO SWRI• IOTA TO DETERMINE ITS OWN PRIORITY• FILTER BY DISTANCE• IOTA TO DEFINE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR

FUNDING ONCE SWRI FUNDING ESTABLISHED• SWRI TO CONSIDER PROPOSED EVENTS• SWRI CONFIRM CONDITIONS FOR FUNDING• IOTA PUTS INTO PLACE METHOD TO ASSURE

PROPER EXECUTION BY MEMBERS

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IOTA FUNDING CONCEPT-1• PAYING TRAVEL COSTS OR PARTIAL COSTS• EACH PERSON TREATED AS A CONTRACTOR

TO SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SWRI)• REIMBURSEMENT IS TAXABLE TO EACH

PERSON• IOTA DETERMINES WHO GETS FUNDING

(TBD)• IOTA ASSURES THAT NO SUPPORT CAN BE

VIEWED AS ‘BOONDOGGLE’

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IOTA FUNDING CONCEPT-2

• FUNDING TYPE 1: GAS MONEY• FUNDING TYPE 2: AIRLINE TICKET• IOTA FUNDING AUTHORIZED BY PI AND CO-PI

IN CONCERT WITH IOTA

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RESULTS EXPECTED

• CHORD DATA FROM MORE THAN ONE STATION (TBD)

• NEGATIVE DATA IS A POSSIBLE OUTCOME• REIMBURSEMENT NOT CONTINGENT ON

NEGATIVE DATA BUT PLAN TO DEPLOY MUST BE APPROVED BY SWRI AND IOTA JOINTLY

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PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-1

• HIGH PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS• MULTIPLE OBSERVERS• ENOUGH LAND COVERAGE• EXPERIENCED OBSERVERS ONLY

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PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-2

• HIGH PRIORITY TARGETS• LARGE ASTEROIDS, MULTIPLE CHORDS OR

SATELLITE PRESENCE• OBJECTS FOR WHICH THERE IS LITTLE

OCCULTATION INFO• OBJECTS LARGER THAN 0.18 ARCSECONDS

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PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-3

• OBSERVATIONS THAT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT FUNDING

• E.G. KBO’s

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FUNDING CONCEPT OF MULTISTATION EXPEDITIONS

START DATE: OCTOBER 1, 2010 (TBD)EXAMPLE 1:$5000 PER YEAR FOR 4 YEARSEXAMPLE 2:2010 FISCAL YEAR: $2000 TOTAL EXPANDING TO$10,000 IN 2013

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IOTA CAPABILTIES TODAY• STARS TO MAG 10: MIGHTY MINIS*• STARS TO MAG 11.5: 80MM REFRACTOR*• STARS TO MAG 12.5: 120MM REFRACTOR*• MULTISTATION DEPLOYMENT • PRE-POINT FOR EARLY STATION SETUP• DATA RETURN: MILLISECOND TIME ACCURACY WITHIN 30

FRAMES/SECOND VIDEO• MOBILE DEPLOYMENT

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CAVEATS

*provided by S. Degenhardt. [Actual magnitudes should be more like 9.5, 11, 12 under typical non-optimum conditions. Impacted by spectral bias toward red stars.]

∙ sky conditions with no unusual circumstances, i.e "standard" transparency (i.e. target is 35 degrees or higher), no strong scintillation, no clouds

• raw video with no enhancement needed for LiMovie• PC164EX-2 with Owl FR at fx0.5 standard extension• These numbers come from actual star measurements and

LiMovie reductions

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MULTISTATION READINESS (as of 8/1/09)OPERATIONAL UNTENDED* SITES: MINI 80MM 120MMS.DEGENHARDT (TN)…………………………20…………16………………..5………………………….1D.DUNHAM (MD)………………………………13…………..9………………..6………………………….2P.MALEY (TX)………………………………………6……………6………………..3………………………….1R.NUGENT (TX)…………………………………..2……………0…………………0………………………….0E.IVERSON (TX)…………………………………..2……………0………………..1………………………….1B.SANDY(MO)…………………………………….1……………0………………..1………………………….0T.REDDING(FL)……………………………………3……………0…………………0…………………………0R.VENABLE(GA)………………………………….5……………0…………………0………………………….0T.GEORGE(WA)…………………………………..3……………0…………………0………………………….0S.PRESTON(W)……………………………………5………......0…………………0………………………….0

*ASSUMES 1 TENDED16

ISSUES WITH MULTISTATION SYSTEM• NOT ALL USE ‘STANDARD’ OPTICS• DEMONSTRATING SUCCESSFUL SETUP BY EACH OBSERVER

(PRACTICE OPPORTUNITY)• TIME FOR SETUP RELATIVE TO EVENT TIME• COORDINATION WITH OTHER OBSERVERS• SAFETY/SECURITY OF SITES• POTENTIAL FOR THINGS TO GO WRONG INCREASES FOR EACH

SEPARATE COMPONENT IN A SYSTEM• TIME PERIOD FOR STATIONS TO BE LEFT UNTENDED• LACK OF INDIVIDUAL GPS UNITS FOR EACH SITE• MASS INCREASES AS THE NUMBER OF STATIONS INCREASES;

IMPACT ON TRANSPORT

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CANDIDATE ASTEROID OCCULTATIONS FOR 2010

CHOSEN BASED ON THE FOLLOWING:-STAR BRIGHTNESS-PATH RELIABILITY (from Steve Preston)-POTENTIAL WEATHER IN THE ZONE -DELTA MAGNITUDE DROP-EVENT DURATION-STAR ELEVATION-DISTANCE FROM THE MOON-PROXIMITY TO TWILIGHT-STAR SHOULD BE BRIGHTER THAN +11

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RESULTS

• FILTERED POTENTIALLY RELIABLE EVENTS WITH STARS BRIGHTER THAN 11.0 IN USA FOR MULTISTATION DEPLOY

• RISK OF PATH SHIFT FOR OTHERS• BETTER ONES OCCUR EX-USA • 3 EVENTS HAVE “HIGH” POTENTIAL FOR

SUCCESS

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CANDIDATE 1

• SEPTEMBER 30 (148) GALLIA/HIP43813• THURSDAY MORNING• TARGET MAGNITUDE 3.1; ALT 25; 42 DEG

FROM 53% SUNLIT MOON; DM=10; DURATION 3 seconds

• REQUIREMENTS: MINI

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PATH

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CANDIDATE 2

• OCTOBER 29: (96) AEGLE / TYC2849-00615-1• FRIDAY MORNING• TARGET MAGNITUDE 9.7; ALT 55; 63DEG

FROM 62% SUNLIT MOON; DM=3; DURATION 13seconds

• REQUIREMENTS: 80MM or greater optics

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PATH

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CANDIDATE 3

• DECEMBER 4 (375) URSULA/TYC3358-02411-1• SATURDAY MORNING• TARGET MAGNITUDE 10.0; ALT 41; NO

MOON; DM=2.4; DURATION 16 seconds• REQUIREMENTS: 80mm or greater optics

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PATH

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PROJECT CONDITIONS• REQUIRES MULTISTATION DEPLOY WITH HIGH

CONFIDENCE OF SUCCESS• DATA REQUIRED FOR POTENTIAL PUBLICATION• REQUIRES COMPLETE PATH COVERAGE including

error zones• DATA MUST INCLUDE GPS TIMES WITH D AND R

DATA• SOME TBD EXPENSES POTENTIALLY

REIMBURSABLE WITHIN BUDGET; RECEIPTS REQUIRED

• PILOT TO BE ESTABLISHED FIRST• FUNDING FOR TBD OBSERVERS INITIALLY

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FORWARD WORK

• SwRI TO CONTINUE TO EVOLVE PLAN• INFORMATION TO BE POSTED ON LISTSERVER AT A

FUTURE DATE (TBD)• ASSUMING THAT FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR “X”

OBSERVERS, WE WILL PROVIDE NOTIFICATION• DEPENDENT ON RESULTS, FUTURE EXPEDITIONS

MAY RECEIVE NO, SIMILAR OR GREATER SUPPORT

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END

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