A while after 01:00 UT on December 12 Betelgeuse will be occulted by asteroid (319) Leona. It’s very rare for such a bright star to be occulted and this ‘once in a lifetime’ event will be used to model the photosphere of Betelgeuse.
Recent occultations of other stars by Leona have determined its dimensions, showing that it subtends (perhaps) a slightly smaller apparent diameter than Betelgeuse, giving a partial / annular occultation of 11s duration. The 142 km-wide shadow track passes over China, Turkiye, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and southern Florida (USA), and more than 80 observers are participating in this pro-am campaign. They will record the occultation using various filters and some teams plan to obtain high resolution spectra.
https://call4obs.iota-es.de/2023-dec-12-0110-ut-319-leona-occults-betelgeuse-alpha-orionis-0-5-mag
Alex.
