The occultation of TYC 1397-00920-1 by 271 Penthesilea was a well attended event with AAQ members Jonathan Bradshaw, Peter Anderson and Tim Napier-Munn looking after the North, and with John Broughton to the South with two stations planned.
The conditions were typically Qld Summer – variable to say the least and rather spoilt John's attempts the South. Fortune smiled on those North of the river. Tim, an experienced observer, but completely new to the occultation game and armed only with a stopwatch caught a 4.3 second duration only event. Peter unfortunately missed the beginning of the event but reported a good time for R and also noted a gradual reappearance. Jonathan managed to bag the whole thing at 4.56 seconds.
Jonathan was initially sceptical about any possible `step' event, but with some encouragement from John Talbot at the RASNZ, put a bit more effort into his analysis and managed to show quite clearly that there was a good case to be put for a double star discovery – a very close star though!
The good news is that the target star is well and truly on the lunar occultation path so that it is possible take some further measurements to confirm whether or not it is a double. The bad news is that the next occurence happens in 2018, by which time the near neighbour may well be tucked behind.
Sections