MULTI-STATION COOPERATIVE ASTEROID OCCULTATION SCIENCE WITH SWRI

1. MULTI-STATION COOPERATIVE ASTEROID OCCULTATION SCIENCE WITH SWRI Paul D. Maley/IOTA And Bill Merline/Southwest Research Institute

2. BACKGROUND -SwRI has innate interest in asteroid satellite discovery -IOTA key goal is to discover/confirm asteroid satellites -Multi-station techniques are the current best methodology of enabling such a discovery -Proposal grew from presentation made by IOTA at Colorado conference in 2008

3. BEST DETECTION EVIDENCE

4. DATA OBTAINED FROM INDIVIDUAL OBSERVERS, NOT MULTI-STATION TECHNIQUE

5. BEST EVIDENCE OF ONE OBSERVER AND MULTI-STATION METHOD

6. PROJECT DEFINITION • IOTA TO DEFINE EVENTS OF INTEREST TO SWRI • IOTA TO DETERMINE ITS OWN PRIORITY • FILTER BY DISTANCE • IOTA TO DEFINE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FUNDING ONCE SWRI FUNDING ESTABLISHED • SWRI TO CONSIDER PROPOSED EVENTS • SWRI CONFIRM CONDITIONS FOR FUNDING • IOTA PUTS INTO PLACE METHOD TO ASSURE PROPER EXECUTION BY MEMBERS

7. IOTA FUNDING CONCEPT-1 • PAYING TRAVEL COSTS OR PARTIAL COSTS • EACH PERSON TREATED AS A CONTRACTOR TO SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SWRI) • REIMBURSEMENT IS TAXABLE TO EACH PERSON • IOTA DETERMINES WHO GETS FUNDING (TBD) • IOTA ASSURES THAT NO SUPPORT CAN BE VIEWED AS ‘BOONDOGGLE’

8. IOTA FUNDING CONCEPT-2 • FUNDING TYPE 1: GAS MONEY • FUNDING TYPE 2: AIRLINE TICKET • IOTA FUNDING AUTHORIZED BY PI AND CO-PI IN CONCERT WITH IOTA

9. RESULTS EXPECTED • CHORD DATA FROM MORE THAN ONE STATION (TBD) • NEGATIVE DATA IS A POSSIBLE OUTCOME • REIMBURSEMENT NOT CONTINGENT ON NEGATIVE DATA BUT PLAN TO DEPLOY MUST BE APPROVED BY SWRI AND IOTA JOINTLY

10. PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-1 • HIGH PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS • MULTIPLE OBSERVERS • ENOUGH LAND COVERAGE • EXPERIENCED OBSERVERS ONLY

11. PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-2 • HIGH PRIORITY TARGETS • LARGE ASTEROIDS, MULTIPLE CHORDS OR SATELLITE PRESENCE • OBJECTS FOR WHICH THERE IS LITTLE OCCULTATION INFO • OBJECTS LARGER THAN 0.18 ARCSECONDS

12. PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-3 • OBSERVATIONS THAT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT FUNDING • E.G. KBO’s

13. FUNDING CONCEPT OF MULTISTATION EXPEDITIONS START DATE: OCTOBER 1, 2010 (TBD) EXAMPLE 1: $5000 PER YEAR FOR 4 YEARS EXAMPLE 2: 2010 FISCAL YEAR: $2000 TOTAL EXPANDING TO $10,000 IN 2013

14. IOTA CAPABILTIES TODAY • STARS TO MAG 10: MIGHTY MINIS* • STARS TO MAG 11.5: 80MM REFRACTOR* • STARS TO MAG 12.5: 120MM REFRACTOR* • MULTISTATION DEPLOYMENT • PRE-POINT FOR EARLY STATION SETUP • DATA RETURN: MILLISECOND TIME ACCURACY WITHIN 30 FRAMES/SECOND VIDEO • MOBILE DEPLOYMENT

15. CAVEATS *provided by S. Degenhardt. [Actual magnitudes should be more like 9.5, 11, 12 under typical non-optimum conditions. Impacted by spectral bias toward red stars.] ∙ sky conditions with no unusual circumstances, i.e "standard" transparency (i.e. target is 35 degrees or higher), no strong scintillation, no clouds • raw video with no enhancement needed for LiMovie • PC164EX-2 with Owl FR at fx0.5 standard extension • These numbers come from actual star measurements and LiMovie reductions

16. MULTISTATION READINESS (as of 8/1/09) OPERATIONAL UNTENDED* SITES: MINI 80MM 120MM S.DEGENHARDT (TN)…………………………20…………16………………..5………………………….1 D.DUNHAM (MD)………………………………13…………..9………………..6………………………….2 P.MALEY (TX)………………………………………6……………6………………..3………………………….1 R.NUGENT (TX)…………………………………..2……………0…………………0………………………….0 E.IVERSON (TX)…………………………………..2……………0………………..1………………………….1 B.SANDY(MO)…………………………………….1……………0………………..1………………………….0 T.REDDING(FL)……………………………………3……………0…………………0…………………………0 R.VENABLE(GA)………………………………….5……………0…………………0………………………….0 T.GEORGE(WA)…………………………………..3……………0…………………0………………………….0 S.PRESTON(W)……………………………………5………......0…………………0………………………….0 *ASSUMES 1 TENDED

17. ISSUES WITH MULTISTATION SYSTEM • NOT ALL USE ‘STANDARD’ OPTICS • DEMONSTRATING SUCCESSFUL SETUP BY EACH OBSERVER (PRACTICE OPPORTUNITY) • TIME FOR SETUP RELATIVE TO EVENT TIME • COORDINATION WITH OTHER OBSERVERS • SAFETY/SECURITY OF SITES • POTENTIAL FOR THINGS TO GO WRONG INCREASES FOR EACH SEPARATE COMPONENT IN A SYSTEM • TIME PERIOD FOR STATIONS TO BE LEFT UNTENDED • LACK OF INDIVIDUAL GPS UNITS FOR EACH SITE • MASS INCREASES AS THE NUMBER OF STATIONS INCREASES; IMPACT ON TRANSPORT

18. CANDIDATE ASTEROID OCCULTATIONS FOR 2010 CHOSEN BASED ON THE FOLLOWING: -STAR BRIGHTNESS -PATH RELIABILITY (from Steve Preston) -POTENTIAL WEATHER IN THE ZONE -DELTA MAGNITUDE DROP -EVENT DURATION -STAR ELEVATION -DISTANCE FROM THE MOON -PROXIMITY TO TWILIGHT -STAR SHOULD BE BRIGHTER THAN +11

19. RESULTS • FILTERED POTENTIALLY RELIABLE EVENTS WITH STARS BRIGHTER THAN 11.0 IN USA FOR MULTISTATION DEPLOY • RISK OF PATH SHIFT FOR OTHERS • BETTER ONES OCCUR EX-USA • 3 EVENTS HAVE “HIGH” POTENTIAL FOR SUCCESS

20. CANDIDATE 1 • SEPTEMBER 30 (148) GALLIA/HIP43813 • THURSDAY MORNING • TARGET MAGNITUDE 3.1; ALT 25; 42 DEG FROM 53% SUNLIT MOON; DM=10; DURATION 3 seconds • REQUIREMENTS: MINI

21. PATH

22. CANDIDATE 2 • OCTOBER 29: (96) AEGLE / TYC2849-00615-1 • FRIDAY MORNING • TARGET MAGNITUDE 9.7; ALT 55; 63DEG FROM 62% SUNLIT MOON; DM=3; DURATION 13seconds • REQUIREMENTS: 80MM or greater optics

23. PATH

24. CANDIDATE 3 • DECEMBER 4 (375) URSULA/TYC3358-02411-1 • SATURDAY MORNING • TARGET MAGNITUDE 10.0; ALT 41; NO MOON; DM=2.4; DURATION 16 seconds • REQUIREMENTS: 80mm or greater optics

25. PATH

26. PROJECT CONDITIONS • REQUIRES MULTISTATION DEPLOY WITH HIGH CONFIDENCE OF SUCCESS • DATA REQUIRED FOR POTENTIAL PUBLICATION • REQUIRES COMPLETE PATH COVERAGE including error zones • DATA MUST INCLUDE GPS TIMES WITH D AND R DATA • SOME TBD EXPENSES POTENTIALLY REIMBURSABLE WITHIN BUDGET; RECEIPTS REQUIRED • PILOT TO BE ESTABLISHED FIRST • FUNDING FOR TBD OBSERVERS INITIALLY

27. FORWARD WORK • SwRI TO CONTINUE TO EVOLVE PLAN • INFORMATION TO BE POSTED ON LISTSERVER AT A FUTURE DATE (TBD) • ASSUMING THAT FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR “X” OBSERVERS, WE WILL PROVIDE NOTIFICATION • DEPENDENT ON RESULTS, FUTURE EXPEDITIONS MAY RECEIVE NO, SIMILAR OR GREATER SUPPORT

28. END