REPORT FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR 2010

1. REPORT FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR 2010 PAUL MALEY IOTA ANNUAL MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2010

2. INTERNATIONAL ASTEROID OCCULTATION OUTREACH • EXPEDITION TO GREECE OCTOBER 31, 2010 -LEONA OCCULTATION FROM ATHENS: MISS OBSERVED • EXPEDITION TO MOLDOVA NOVEMBER 3, 2010 • TISIPHONE/THISBE OCCULTATIONS NOVEMBER 3: FOGGED OVER · EXPEDITION TO IRAQI KURDISTAN PLANNED FOR 2011

3. PAST ASTEROID OCCULTATION OUTREACH ATTEMPTS • PANAMA MEXICO • EL SALVADOR *CUBA • GUATEMALA AFGHANISTAN • AUSTRALIA • MACEDONIA • BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA • *CANADA *indicates positive occultation observed • JAPAN • CHINA • SOUTH AFRICA • TANZANIA • LIBYA • *GUYANA • BRAZIL • FRENCH GUIANA • BARBADOS

4. OCCULTATION EXPEDITION FUNDING • FUNDING DISCUSSION WITH SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SwRI) INITITATED IN 2009 • 3 PROPOSALS SUBMITTED by SwRI to NASA and NSF, LATE 2009-MID 2010, with IOTA participants • STATUS: One awarded, 2 pending … pilot funding for some events may occur in 2011

5. SwRI Collaboration This is with Bill Merline of SwRI as PI of the projects, and involves asteroid sizes/shapes and asteroid satellites for Main Belt and Trojan asteroids This is NOT the same work being led by Marc Buie, also of SwRI, regarding occultations of Pluto and/or KBOs, for which he has solicited IOTA help. No funding is expected for the Pluto/KBO effort at this moment. BUT, your help is needed, encouraged, and appreciated!

6. PROPOSAL #1 • This award, from NSF, has been approved, and covers 3 years (12-mo each) starting 9/1/2010. It is mainly a grant to make AO observations for asteroids for shape/size/pole and to search for satellites. A small portion of the grant is to cover travel-only costs for a few occultation expeditions with a goal of increasing the number of chords on certain key events (among the 200 asteroids total that can get above 0.10" in angular size). 

7. PROPOSAL RATIONALE • “4.3.3 Stellar Occultations A well-covered stellar occultation of an asteroid offers the same information as an adaptive optics image, a long and short dimension and an orientation at a given instant from an elliptical fit of its outline. Thus, we can directly insert occultation data into our datasets to find triaxial ellipsoid dimensions and a rotational pole for an asteroid. Furthermore, the outlines of asteroids produced by stellar occultations can fit into the lightcurve inversion models, since they provide detailed shapes at a given instant.

8. The KOALA shape modeling method KOALA – new shape modeling tool See Benoit Carry's talk #46.02

9. REVIEWER COMMENT • “The proposing team points out that very few asteroids have occultation diameters/shapes. That is because occultations are rare, and occultation expeditions are difficult to organize. Following through on data collection, analysis and publication is another labor-intensive enterprise. The Team's request for travel funds only to obtain this data together with a largely amateur group (IOTA) is somewhat unrealistic.” • “The panel noted, however, that the incorporation of amateur data into the analysis poses substantial challenges (related to assessing the quality and reliability of the contributed observations). The proposal would have benefited from more detail on this aspect.”

10. PI Merline’s synopsis of review More than travel funds will be needed to synthesize and understand the data sets. We could not propose and probably would not have received funds for more than limited travel (other worthy programs were turned down entirely, so it is crucial to make the best use of our funds). Your help in interpreting the data will be vital to the possibility of more funding.  There was much concern about consistency of observations and understanding errors in positions and timing. It will also be key that everyone takes this as strongly as possible. There was concern that in the past there may have been too much of a tendency to clump observers near the predicted track to try to “catch” the event. But the track uncertainties must not be taken lightly and we need a good spacing of observers. Valid or not, that was a concern. But we say that a “miss” is as good as a “hit” for defining size/shape. We have highlighted the extreme value of IOTA observers for the purpose of public outreach and education – mixing with the community for help and teaching them a bit about astronomy at the same time! It is also vital that this public interface continue.

11. Potential Major Expedition List Asteroid     UT Date   Star magnitude • Parthenope  Jan 26   10.6 • Aurelia         Feb 2    8.8 • Feronia        Mar 9    8.2 • Iris               Apr 30   9.9 • Europa         Jul 4     10.0 • Antiope        Jul 19    6.7 • Prokne         Aug 6    8.9

12. PROPOSAL #2 • There is another proposal (NASA Planetary Astronomy) that has been said to be approved, but it is not yet official.  THAT one covers occultations to search for new satellites as well as attempt chords on knownsatellites. Here the funding for trips is even smaller. But we hope it will stimulate interest in these events.

13. PROPOSAL #3 This one does not entail any funding for new occultation data. Instead it seeks to combine existing occultation data with existing AO data to get better sizes/shapes of asteroids, using the KOALA method. Of importance are that IOTA help is sought in finding and interpreting existing occultation data and, what’s more, the occultation data will contribute to key new science results, leading to better understanding of asteroid sizes, shapes, densities, compositions. PENDING

14. WAY FORWARD • STAND BY FOR NEWS OF PROPOSAL APPROVAL • DETERMINATION BY THE PROFESSIONAL TEAM AS TO WHICH OPPORTUNITIES ARE WORTH FUNDING • ASSESSMENT OF IOTA RESOURCES REQUIRED

15. ALLOCATION OF FUNDING • LIKELY FOR ONLY MULTI-STATION EVENTS IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE DATA • PILOT OCCULTATION SUCCESS/FAILURE WILL DETERMINE WHETHER SUCCESSIVE FUNDING WILL BE AVAILABLE • CONCENTRATE ON BRIGHT STAR EVENTS FOR MIGHTY MINI’S or MIDI’s (see slide 6)

16. ECLIPSE PLANNING • EXPEDITION TO CENTERLINE IN AUSTRALIA NOVEMBER 14, 2012 • SOUTHERN EDGE SITE SCOUTED IN 2010 • EXPEDITION TO CENTERLINE IN UTAH PLANNED FOR MAY 20, 2012