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THE UPDATED PATH
On February 25 UT (morning of February 26 NZST), the 157 km diameter asteroid (804) Hispania will occult a 11.1 mag star in the constellation Scorpius for observers along a path across New Zealand. Between 13:01 and 13:03 UT the updated path directly crosses Blenheim, Wellington, Palmerston North and New Plymouth, and passes very close to Auckland.
In the case of an occultation, the combined light of the asteroid and the star will drop by 2.3 mag to 13.3 mag (the magnitude of the asteroid) for at most 7.9 seconds.
This update is based on UNSO/Flagstaff astrometry for the asteroid kindly provided by Ron Stone, TMO astrometry for the asteroid kindly provided by Bill Owen, astrometry for the asteroid kindly provided by Gordon Garradd, historical astrometry from AstDys, and the following catalogs for the star position: UCAC.
Additional details of this and other events are available at Steve Preston's website at http://www.oz.net/~stevepr/Asteroids/asteroid.htm
EVENT DETAILS SUMMARY :IMPORTANT NOTE!
Astrometric updates such as these should not be taken as definitive, but rather only as an indication of where the true track may lie relative to the original predicted track. Observers must bear in mind that later astrometry, in which the target star is measured in the same field as the asteroid, may still reveal substantial changes to the predicted track and time of the event. For this reason it is most important that observers far from the predicted track still monitor the event.
Use these links for further information:
[Planetary Occultations]
[Using the Predictions]
[Observing Details]
[Timing Details]
[Reporting Details]
[Report Form]
[Asteroid Occultation Results]
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