Re: A possible satellite observation?
LWojack@aol.com
Sat, 7 Aug 1999 20:05:06 EDT
In a message dated 8/3/99 10:32:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
edcannonutaustin@netscape.net writes:
> I've never observed a grazing occultation, but I sort of wonder if the star
> was never actually occulted, how much it would move relative to the Moon
in
> 5
> minutes. Mightn't the motion be imperceptible at least to some observers?
I've seen a few. There is very little motion in 5 minutes. Unless you are
using 600+ power (and have good resolution, something few amatuers have -
with 600x, if they can achieve it), you will not detect motion for, at the
very least, 5 minutes. Consider this: the moon moves at 30 arc-minutes per
hour, or 30" per minute (2 and a half arc-minutes in five minutes). A
scrutinizing observer theoretically could detect movement inside of 300
seconds, but if the star was already an arc-minute or so off the moon's limb,
movement would be much less visible.
I believe that it is very possible that this was a star.
Jonathan
lwojack@aol.com