[BAA Comets] Pro-Am success in measuring (3200) Phaethon

[Alex Pratt]

Hi all,
A recent highlight on the IOTAoccultations forum was that the Apollo asteroid (3200) Phaethon, the parent body of the Geminid meteor shower and described as a 'rock comet', was predicted to occult a mag 7.3 star in Auriga for about 0.5s on July 29.
The predicted shadow track crossed the southwestern United States and a well-coordinated group of experienced occultation observers from IOTA and professionals from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) were successful in obtaining timings from several carefully planned observing sites.
The provisional shape profile, derived from data submitted so far, is available here:
http://iota.jhuapl.edu/20190729PhaethonAug09.ppt
As well as confirming the dimensions of (3200) Phaethon, the data will provide high-quality astrometry of Phaethon at the time of the occultation and will give confidence for the ground track for August 21, when Phaethon will occult a mag 11.9 star for observers across Japan. (The observations in the USA found a path shift of only 1.1km from the predicted track).
All these results will contribute to the planning of the Japanese Space Agency's (JAXA) Destiny+ spacecraft, which is to perform a close flyby of (3200) Phaethon.
Yet another great success for IOTA and SwRI.
Clear skies,
     Alex.
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