(216)Kleopatra will occult HIP 54599 (~8mag) April 12th, 2015 ~01:05 UT
Occultation of HIP 54599 by (216) is currently expected as THE occultation event of CY 2015 Because of the special shape like a "Hundeknochen" of Kleopatra the final prediction of the occultation area was not possible. We (Alfons Gabel and me) have been approach by Oliver Klös to observe the lightcurve in order to update the information about the phaseangle @ occultation time. We got the opportunity to measure the lightcurve during two nights using the Trebur-1Meter-Telescope (T1T) @ Michael Adrian Observatory / Astronomie Stiftung Trebur.
Together with a second observation on January 29th, 2015 we gave the data to Raoul Behrend (Observatoire de Genève) who creates together with other observation an synthetic lightcurve.
Based on our observation together with the CdR&CdL team Jean Lecacheux performs a prediction about the orientation of the asteroid:
"Thanks to Trebur Observatory and to the "CdR&CdL" photometric community [cf. http://obswww.unige.ch/~behrend/r000216a.png ], I am able to predict that the long axis of Kleopatra's shadow will move at occultation time nearly perpendicular to the occultation track. So it should result almost ideal conditions for recording the neck outline !"
As well mentioned here .
A blog tracking the activities before / during / after the occutation event has been provided by Oliver Klös (IOTA.ES) IOTA-ES : Call for Observations. We tried to observe the event in Trebur @ Michael Adrian Observatory. First test picture to find out the right exposure times went well - but the DMK creates connection issue and finaly due to defects within the USB connection we were not able to observe the event.
Bernd Gaehrken reports about his observation at his web site.
Current Status of the development of the profile @ EURASTER.net using observed cords.
