A 1.8 second occultation was recorded by Jim Palfreyman, using visual technique.
Chris Chad not far away was clouded out.

View the updated prediction.

Observers:
  1    J Palfreyman,Old Beach, Tasmania
  2(P) Prediction,  6 March

    

Discussion: The circle above is plotted at the expected 68 km diameter of Martha. With only one chord it is not possible to determine whether Jim was north or south of the central line of the event.

Jim writes:
"I had a positive observation today but I saw a strange phenomena at disappearance. I thought I'd expand more here.
I'm an experienced amateur and have observed hundreds of lunar occultations over the years. I've always been unlucky with asteroidal observations and have never seen one while trying for 30 years!
Sky was good - some clouds but not where I was observing. Moon was 20 degrees away and bright.
The star and a nearby one were easy to see and obvious in my Meade LX90.
The disappearance was quite strange and I have never seen anything like it. It was like the point of the star shot off quickly (NW) and left a trail. I saw it as a line - whether that was real or just a fast moving dot I don't know.
Reappearance was normal. What could cause that phenomena? I will add my eyes were not watering at the time as they sometimes can in the cold. "

After some discussion we think the most likely explanation for the streak was a small meteor that could have been part of the Gemini Nomids shower that was active at that date. jt

Observational Data:

Observation details for MP (205) Martha
By Star              HIP HIP54259
On 2011-03-20  at 12:35:01.0

_______________________________

Observer   Jim Palfreyman
Location   Old Beach, Tasmania
Longitude  +147:16
Latitude   -42:46
Altitude   43 m
Datum      WGS84
Telescope SCT including Cass and Mak
Aperture   20 cm
Seeing     Steady Broken cloud
Camera Type
Camera Delay
Timing     other Visual, PE applied
Disappearance  12:34:57.60
Reappearance   12:34:59.40
Comments: I'm an experienced amateur astronomer and have observed many lunar occultations.
None have ever looked like this. This is my first successful asteroidal occultation
after trying for 30 years! Timing was a stopwatch and GPS time signal.
Report prepopulated by IOTA Reporting Add-in for OW ver.1.4