Attention
Occultation Alert
How many of us have seen a star occulted by an asteroid? It is kind of like watching a solar eclipse but in miniature, it is the passing of an asteroid in front of a star. This one occurs in the constelation of Auriga.
On Friday Feb. 22, 2013 at 02:25UT (09:25pm EST), the 123 km diameter asteroid (469) Argentina will occult a 6.8 mag star in the constellation Auriga for observers along a path across Canada, E USA, Colombia, Brazil, and Winston-Salem is almost in the center of this path.
In the case of this occultation, the combined light of the asteroid and the star will drop by 7.2 mag to mag 14.0 (the magnitude of the asteroid) for at most 14.8 seconds. The star that will be occulted has a magnitude of 6.8 but when the asteroid passes in front of it all you will be able to see is the sun’s light reflecting off the asteroid. The star will appear to blink off for 14.8 seconds and then blink back on.
Here is a chart showing the path of the occultation.
By Buddy
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