Gaia Promises New Occultation Opportunities Soon

Presenter(s): David Dunham

Affiliation(s): IOTA

Session details: Sunday, 2016-03-27 03:00:00, LT106

Abstract

In this presentation, David will talk about IOTA, some of its history, and how they currently observe occultations. He will describe how he has worked with Australian observers to develop new equipment and methods, especially for multi-station deployments, and will discuss the subsequent results from his observations during his and his wife’s year of astro-tourism while in Australia. He will predict how the precision astrometric data from ESA’s Gaia mission, with the first release later this year, will make our efforts more productive and open new opportunities for occultation observers, similar to, but more far-reaching than, the revolution for asteroidal occultations that resulted in 1997 when the results from ESA’s earlier HIPPARCOS space astrometry mission were released.In this presentation, David will talk about IOTA, some of its history, and how they currently observe occultations. He will describe how he has worked with Australian observers to develop new equipment and methods, especially for multi-station deployments, and will discuss the subsequent results from his observations during his and his wife’s year of astro-tourism while in Australia. He will predict how the precision astrometric data from ESA’s Gaia mission, with the first release later this year, will make our efforts more productive and open new opportunities for occultation observers, similar to, but more far-reaching than, the revolution for asteroidal occultations that resulted in 1997 when the results from ESA’s earlier HIPPARCOS space astrometry mission were released.

Biography

David Dunham graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964 and obtained a Ph.D. in celestial mechanics from Yale University in 1971. In 1962, he wrote the first computer program to predict lunar grazing occultations, and his efforts to encourage observations of these events around the world let to the foundation of the International Occultation Timing Association in 1975. He was president of IOTA from its founding until 2013, but remains active on its board of directors. He led IOTA’s shift to observing asteroidal occultations and pioneered efforts to video record the phenomena. During his day job, with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and since 2008 with KinetX, he has computed orbits for several space missions, including ISEE-3, the first halo orbiter in 1978; the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission; and the twin STEREO solar observing spacecraft.