Re-2: [meteorite-list] Stellar Eclipse in the Americas Now!

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

I wrote:
>It will be visible in the lands south of the swarth SOUTH from Four  Corners 
>to Dallas to Atlanta and to Norfolk Virginia.  If you live along  that line, 
you 
>will can see a grazing occultation which means the star will telegraph  to 
>you the specific mountains and valleys along Luna's surface as it skims 
>along - Fantastic trip from the backyard with the family!

Hola  Bernd, Jerry, and List, I also wrote that the graze line passed through 
Four  Corners, Dallas, Atlanta, and Norfolk, Virginia and the occultation was 
SOUTH of  that line in the original message, why the message Bernd?  It was a 
little  short notice, just good for those who were in front of their 
computers.  I  can report mixed luck on my attempt at observation, and no fireballs, 
even  though Hurrucane Emily is angrily headed our way, skies were clear, and 
at 10:58  PM I handed the binoculars to my guest, who promptly decided to look 
at  something else interesting for a moment, unknown to me."   So I ask,  
"What do you see?" -"The stars are so beautiful..."   "-Gimme  that....  
ARRRRRRrrrrgghhh.  Antares is gone."  (answer "I didn't  think it would happen so 
quickly..." ).  
 
Jerry, not to fear, there is one more stellar occultation better than 4th  
magnitude, by the Moon this year.  Mark your calender for local time 3:16  AM or 
so on 23 December 2005.  It'll be a waning half-Moon to the Southeast  for 
you.  Unfortunately, at 3.6 magnitude, the star, Zavijah, the second  brightest 
one in the Constellation Virgo pales in comparision  to Antares which is 11.4 
times brighter.  But Zavijah has  the honor of translating into English as 
"the smartest one" or "the  barking one" and being a lot more similar to the 
color of out Sun in size and  jut a tad bit warmer.  Too bad we just miss the 
night occultation of Spica,  the brightest Star in Virgo and on par with Antares, 
two days later.  That  will be a great Xmas present, an occultation at dawn of 
another first magnitude  star, for people living from North Dakota to New 
Mexico and further west.
 
PS Antares is 400-500 light years away (Divide that by 3.26 to get about  125 
Parsecs) in distance.  When Bernd quotes Burnham's comment on size  being 700 
times that of our Sun, he means to quote Burnham compares the size of  the 
respective diameters.  Thus Antares would reach the asteroid belt  if it were in 
the Sun's place...and a third of a billions Suns would  fit within its 3600 
degree K gaseous photosphere.  By the way, Antares  is one of the biggest 
candidates to go supernova any moment...but this  occultation didn't precipitate 
that...
 
Saludos, Doug.