Occultations were recorded by Dave Herald and Hristo Pavlov, using Video OSD technique.

View the updated prediction.

Observers:
  1    D. Herald, Kambah, ACT, AU
  2    H. Pavlov, Marsfield, NSW, AU
  4(M) A. Brakel, Downer, ACT, AU
  5(M) D. Gault,Hawkesbury Heights,NSW,AU
  6(P) Prediction 5 July

    

Discussion:

The ellipse above is plotted at the best fit to the two chords of Gaea. This is significantly smaller in area than the expected diameter of about 20 km. No shape data has been found. An 11.7 x 7.9 km ellipse has an area of only 72 sq km compared to a 20 km circle with area of 314 sq km. This suggests that Gaea may have a much higher than normal albedo for a main belt object, or she could be a multi lobed object and this observation only saw a small lobe.

The figure below shows Hristo's light curve of the occultation as analysed by Limovie software.

Observational Data:

Observation details for MP (1184) Gaea
By Star              TYC 7357-01060-1
On 2008-08-09  at 10:24:30.0
_______________________________

Observer   D Herald
Location   Yass, NSW, AU
Longitude  +148:58:11.7
Latitude   -34:52:23.6
Altitude   548 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   20 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - other linking Video with frame analysis

Missed

Comments:

_______________________________

Observer   Dave Herald
Location   Kambah, ACT, AU
Longitude  +149:03:49.
Latitude   -35:23:49.3
Altitude   580 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   35 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - other linking Video with frame analysis
Disappearance  10:24:27.12
Reappearance   10:24:27.62
Comments:

_______________________________

Observer   Dave Gault
Location   Hawkesbury Heights
Longitude  +150:38:27.8
Latitude   -33:39:52.
Altitude   286 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope Newtonian
Aperture   25 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis

Missed

Comments: Telescope prepointed and left unattended Second station 15km west of
first station was clouded.

_______________________________

Observer   Hristo Pavlov
Location   Marsfield
Longitude  +151:06:11.5
Latitude   -33:46:13.6
Altitude   105 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   20 cm
Seeing     Steady Clear
Timing     GPS - time inserted Video with frame analysis
Disappearance  10:25:00.79
Reappearance   10:25:01.47
Comments: Had problems with the scope alignment for this near zenith occultation
and had to make manual corrections every 30 sec. Camera used: WAT 902 H