WELCOME
Scotty Degenhardt scotty@scottysmightymini.com
American Association of Variable Star Observers
International
Occultation Timing Association
Society for Astronomical Sciences
CURRENT OBSERVING PROGRAMS
JEE2013 Call for observers
Modeling the Jovian dust field, moon atmospheres, flux
tubes, and Io’s Torus through Jovian Extinction Events (JEE)
**
Preliminary RESULTS of all JEE Observing Programs **
http://scottysmightymini.com/JEE/results/
Predictions now
available through 2014 at JEE Main Page: http://scottysmightymini.com/JEE/
December 22, 2012
***NEW***
Leading the way to
the next revolution in asteroidal occultation multi-station
deployment…
An array of Orion ST120mm stations, the Mighty Maxi!!!
New portable tripod design for around $100:
ScottysMaxiMount_20130810.pdf (Revised)
20110719 (90) Antiope
binary asteroid expedition
Information on the organized observing expedition:
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/NA/2011Meeting/Antiope.htm
POST (SPECTACULAR!)
RESULTS (as of August 13, 2011):
Videos I made of my expedition:
20110719 Antiope Occultation Part 4, THE OCCULTATION EVENT and results!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMhPVk8JVM8
Pre-deployment equipment tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s0fvlMOyNU
Arrival at broadcast site +25km from centerline:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYeKDy1-30U
Start of live view through the mighty mini at +25km several minutes before the
occultation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eccKDEb_8I
Jovian Extinction Events - JEE 2010
The Jovian Mutual Event (JME) season whereby the orbital plane of the Jovian moons was edge on providing occultations and eclipses of these moons with each other ended in January 2010. However extinction events will continue potentially through 2010, and possibly until the start of the next JME cycle in 2014. The following predictions are times in 2010 when objects will pass behind the atmospheric material surrounding Io, Europa, and the Torus of Io. It is predicted theoretically based on modeling of anomalous lightcurve trends found in the IAEP study that these materials will cause a dimming or extinction of the light from objects as they pass behind this material. The JEE Observing Program has been established to test these theories and provide a better understanding of these structures. Please forward any data collected of any JEE to Scott Degenhardt (scotty@scottysmightymini.com) for further studies of extinction material of the Jovian system. Feel free to contact Scott if you need additional information on participating in this JEE study. Predictions and details can be found here:
http://scottysmightymini.com/JEE/JEE.htm
PAST OBSERVING RESULTS
** Preliminary
RESULTS of all JEE Observing Programs ** http://scottysmightymini.com/JEE/results/
(after my lengthy absence I am returning for a LIVE broadcast!)
May 20, 2012 Annular Eclipse broadcast
LIVE from Area 51's Black Mailbox!
YOUTUBE ANNOUNCEMENT: http://youtu.be/nI18UeeKNVw
EVENT: May 20, 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse
LIVE on
Scotty’s Sky: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scottys-sky
LOCATION: From Area 51’s Black Mailbox
EQUIPMENT: Solar filter with orange rendering of sun, color
video through an Orion 80mm ST refractor, clock driven, live streaming video
and audio on Verizon 3G over iPhone, wireless audio
by Lectrosonics.
2010 SAS Conference: Io and Europa Atmosphere Detection through Jupiter Mutual Events
Power Point Presentation files:
http://scottysmightymini.com/SAS2010/SAS2010IoEuropaDegenhardt.zip
YouTube
video in four parts of the SAS 2010
Power Point Presentation:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJE_V9Jysto
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BFRpbTc748
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02s4KIZ55NE
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UECOxlFKLVI
All
asteroidal profile measurement results can be found
at the Asteroid
Occultation Results for North America.
All of the profiles that I participated in
measuring:
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/previous_observations.htm
CALL FOR OBSERVERS: (234) Barbara:
The French VLT-MIDI Team has developed a new observational technique using interferometery that potentially provides very high resolution measurements of asteroid bodies. In developing this technique they have potentially found that the asteroid (234) Barbara may be a contact binary. This November the USA and European observers have a chance to measure the shadow of Barbara as it occults a bright star. IOTA has scheduled its annual meeting in Orlando, Florida for this event. Coordinated observing efforts through the central part of Florida in the USA and European path maps can be found here:
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/234_Barbara_CallForObservers.htm
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/20090719Pretoria_pr.htm
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/20090820Vanadis_pr.htm
ARCHIVED VIDEO
YouTube
video in four parts of the SAS 2010 Power Point Presentation:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJE_V9Jysto
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BFRpbTc748
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02s4KIZ55NE
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UECOxlFKLVI
20091121 (234) Barbara Asteroidal occultation results video. MUST SEE!
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/20091121_234_BarbaraDegenhardt.wmv
20090909 (449) Hamburga asteroid expedition results
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2140590
20090909 Hamburga asteroidal expedition Part 1 (equipment tour)
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2127995
20090820 asteroid Vanadis occultation event 1h46m20ish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNoHQpoqGXI
20090820 asteroid Vanadis expedition Part 3, aligned on target star
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2013019
20090820 asteroid Vanadis expedition Part 2, asteroid expedition equipment setup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1XajjpqUdY
20090718/19 (790) Pretoria asteroid Expedition Part1, equipment tour
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1831692
19980912 Aldebaran Lunar Graze
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBoBWtqINh4
Other archived videos can be searched at my Scottys Sky site:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scottys-sky
Publications
(more updates soon)
Degenhardt, S. et. al (2010), Io and Europa Atmosphere Detection through Jovian Mutual Events, The Society for Astronomical Science: Proceedings for the 29th Annual Symposium on Telescope Science, p. 91-100
http://scottysmightymini.com/JEE/SAS2010_Io_Europa_Degenhardt.pdf
Degenhardt, S. (2009), Effects of Optical Miniaturization on Occultations, Small Telescopes and Astronomical Research, Collins Foundation Press, p. 103-122.
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/Effects_miniature_optics_occultations.html
Timerson, B. et. al (2009), A Trio of Well Observed Asteroid Occultations in 2008, The Minor Planet Bulletin, Volume 36, No. 3, p. 98-100.
http://www.minorplanetobserver.com/mpb/MPB36-3.pdf
Degenhardt, S. et. al (2009), The Metis Meteor, WGN 37:1, p. 33-36
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/WGN37-1.pdf
Degenhardt, S. (2009), Guide 8 Prepoint chart for lunar graze of Taygeta, Star Dust, Vol 68, Iss 1, p. 5
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/StarDust_2009_068_01.pdf
Degenhardt, S. et. al (2009), High Resolution Asteroid Profile by Multi Chord Occultation Observation, The Society for Astronomical Science: Proceedings for the 28th Annual Symposium on Telescope Science, Abstracts 2000 - 2009, p. 14
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/HighResAstProfile.pdf
List of all asteroid profiles that I participated in measuring:
http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/previous_observations.htm
OBSERVING SYSTEMS
(more details coming here soon)
· Mighty Mini – a Tasco Essentials binocular objective modified to fit on the end of a video camera with an Owl f * 0.5 focal reducer attached.
· Mighty Midi – an Orion 80mm f/5 short tube refractor used with a video camera and Owl f * 0.5 focal reducer and Mini as a finder scope.
· Mighty Maxi – an Orion 120mm f/5 short tube refractor with a video camera and Owl f * 0.5 focal reducer and Mini as a finder scope.
Providing the highest
resolution asteroid measurements known to man…
Occultation detection with
an array of Mighty Minis!
Coming soon, all manner of
astronomical folly by
Scotty Degenhardt
Ø I will provide you complete details on how to build your own Mighty Mini, or buy one prebuilt
Ø Details of past observation successes with the Mighty Mini, historical “mini memories”
Ø Details of future events observable by the Mighty Mini and plans to broadcast them LIVE from the field
Ø Links to publications the Mighty Mini observations have been recognized
Streaming LIVE from a shadow’s path!
The following table is a list of all currently planned events to be observed (weather permitting). They will be aired live on the internet from “Scotty’s Sky.” Events that involve moons of planets will be broadcast from my home. For the asteroidal occultations, if time allows I fully intend to broadcast live from one of my remotely deployed stations located inside the path of the asteroid’s shadow! (I promise that soon a more detailed page will come that will link you to the specific information concerning each event)
Click here to go live to Scotty’s Sky: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scottys-sky
OBSERVING TOOLS
Step by step instructions for using Guide 8 to make prepoint charts:
http://scottysmightymini.com/tools/How_to_make_Guide8_prepoints.htm
LiMovie: free photometric reduction of video:
http://www005.upp.so-net.ne.jp/k_miyash/occ02/limovie_en.html
ImageJ: powerful free image processing software from NIH:
http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/download.html
Awarded
the Homer F. DaBoll Award for 2011
“For
leading the way with occultation observation techniques to include scope
design, multi-station deployment and data collection”
http://www.poyntsource.com/Richard/IOTAMeeting2011.htm
(updated Sep 3, 2012)