Lunar Grazing Occultation Maps for North America for 2023 - New Updated 2023 Nov. 22
by Eberhard Riedel and David Dunham
A solar eclipse observed near the limits of central eclipse is the ultimate graze
We post here, the video of the Oct. 14th annular eclipse we recorded near the s. limit and a recent presentation about it
The best lunar grazing occultations of 2023 in North America are shown in a map and tables in this .pdf document. The map, tables, and text of the document are adapted from pages 171 to 174 of the 2023 RASC Observer's Handbook. But many additional good lunar grazing occultations that will be visible from North America in 2023 are shown in maps and tables with more detailed information given below. __________________________________ THE ULTIMATE GRAZE, THE 2023 OCT. 14TH ANNULAR ECLIPSE AT THE S. LIMIT Not shown on this page is a prediction for the ultimate grazing occultation, one of the Sun that occurred during the annular solar eclipse of October 14th. A good prediction site, which takes into account both the topography of the Moon and the Earth, is Xavier Jubiers zoomable Google map that we used to select our observation site in Mentmore, NM, a few miles west of Gallup and a similar distance west of the Arizona border. The coordinates of our 127mm telescope were: Latitude 35.50030 deg. N, Long. 108.85797 deg. W (GPS, from IOTA-VTI), altitude 1966m (from Google Earth, within a meter of the IOTA-VTI value). You can see the multitude of Bailys beads during the central 3 min. in our video recording. A longer video (almost 7 minutes) shows all of the Bailys bead events we recorded. Before the annular phase, we also recorded the occultation disappearances of a pair of sunspots; here is the video of the D of the upper one and of the larger lower one. David and Joan Dunham gave a presentation about their observations at a meeting of the East Valley Astronomy Club, held in Gilbert, Arizona and online on 2023 Nov. 17. A .pdf of their presentation was shown; there is also a .pdf of the narration for the presentation. At the end of the presentation, the prolonged visibility of Bailys beads and the chromosphere as seen from locations a km or so inside the path of a total solar eclipse was stessed, as shown in a great recording of the 2017 solar eclipse by Fred Bruenjes from his home about 2 km n. of the southern limit of totality. Please watch it; it may convince some to observe from locations just inside the path edges of the 2024 April 8th total solar eclipse. IOTA used to strongly encourage accurately timed video observations of solar eclipses from near the edges of the paths of totality or annularity, for measuring the solar diameter, but we came to realize the difficulty in deriving such information from such recordings, as noted in the presentation. Nevertheless, others are interested in obtaining such observations, mainly to improve predictions for future eclipse, and since this was the last annular eclipse visible from the USA until 2048, it was a last chance for us. Our success was payback for our failure at the 2012 annular eclipse, when we were misled by a hand-held GPS and ended up about 15 miles outside the zone of annularity. __________________________________ ONE OF THE BEST GRAZE VIDEOS, 2017 ALDEBARAN, 5 STATIONS SYNCHRONIZED On 2017 March 5 (4th local date), Andreas Gada led a team of observers to locations near a country club in Mississauga, Ontario, to record a grazing occultation of Aldebaran on the dark side of the crescent Moon. Video recordings of the event were obtained at five of the stations, and Andreas edited them to create this amazing synchronized composite video which clearly shows the multiple event grazing occultation phenomena and how they change with the geographic spacing of the observers. __________________________________ Below are links to maps and data for the brighter lunar grazing occultations in North America during 2023. There are 6 maps of populated parts of North America showing grazing occultations of stars brighter than mag. 7.5, and some fainter during total lunar eclipses, that should be visible with small telescopes. In the maps, the lines are black, yellow, or blue: - nighttime dark limb: black lines - nighttime bright limb: yellow lines - daytime dark- and bright limb: blue lines I use thick lines for all occulted bodies 1.5 mag. and brighter, and for major planets, regardless of their magnitude. Much information about observing occultations of all types is in "Chasing the Shadow: The IOTA Occultation Observer's Manual" available for free download here. ______________________________ Grazing occultations in North America during 2023 to mag. 7.5 Table Map, Jan. 1 - Feb. 25 Map, Feb. 26 - March 31 Map, April 1 - May 31 Map, June 1 - Aug. 31 Map, Sept. 1 - Oct. 25 Map, Oct. 26 - Dec. 31 Path data These maps, table, and path data were published previously in the RASC Observer's Handbook, for example, on pages 174-178 of the 2021 Handbook. But starting with 2022, only one map of the brighter grazes for the whole year will be published, while these maps for over 200 grazes of stars of mag. 7.5 and brighter (but some fainter, to mag. 10.0, during total lunar eclipses) will be provided online, only at this Web site. During the gibbous phases, when glare is strong, especially near full moon, magnitude limits brighter than 7.5 are used. A page like this for North American grazes during 2022 is here (but you will find there only the .pdf document that documents the brightest grazes during 2022; the more extensive maps and tables for over 200 2022 grazes were removed to make room for the 2023 material) and one for North American grazes during 2021 is here. On the maps, time tick marks are on the north side of southern limits and on the south side of northern limits, that is, on the side of the limit that has a total occultation. The tick marks are at integral 10-minute intervals of U.T., with the U.T. at the western end of the path being given in the table. The Moon's shadow always moves from west to east across the map. The paths end in "A" when the altitude above the horizon equals the star's or planet's magnitude, and it ends in "S" if the Sun altitude equals the negative of the star's magnitude. The path ends in "B" if the graze goes onto the sunlit side of the Moon. Predictions of grazing occultations during 2023 within 200 miles of Blue Springs, Missouri during 2023 are here. Other information described below is on Bob Sandy's page of the main IOTA Web site. These include predictions of total lunar occultations for 40 major North American cities, a list of all known successful grazing occultation expeditions, as published in Occultation Newsletter, that were conducted between 1974 and 1986. Reduction profiles (plots of the observations relative to Watts' charts of the edge of the Moon), most prepared by Bob Sandy, are also available for many of the larger graze expeditions. ___________________________________ Total Lunar Occultation Predictions Predictions of the better total lunar occultations worldwide (mainly for stars and planets of 3rd mag. and brighter) for hundreds of cities are given in a large box, "Upcoming Bright Star Occultation Events", on the left side of IOTA's lunar occultations Web page at http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/iotandx.htm. Clicking on the star name takes you to a Web page for the event with a small-scale map of the occultation's region of visibility at the top (on this map, the northern and southern limits of the region are shown as white lines when the event occurs at night, dark blue lines when it is in dusk or dawn twilight, and dotted red lines when it occurs during daytime; the turqoise curves on the right and left side show where the occultation disappearance and reappearance occur at moonrise and moonset). Below the map is some general information, followed by the predictions for the disappearance, and that is followed by similar information for the reappearance. The cities are listed in alphabetical order by the two-letter country code, and by the city name for each country. For US cities, the state two-letter code is given after the city name, but the order is only by the city name, irrespective of in which state it is located. At the end, following the D and R information is a list of the longitudes and latitudes of all of the cities for which predictions are given. IOTA's lunar occulta- tions Web page is maintained by Rob Robinson, email address webmaster@lunar-occultations.com . ___________________________________ Dr. Eberhard Riedel IOTA-ES Public Relations Mobile +49 179 1253558 e-mail: E_Riedel@msn.com ___________________________________ Page set up by David Dunham on 2023 May 23; updated on Nov. 12, 19, and 22 Cell phone 301-526-5590 email dunham@starpower.net