The review of the Asteroid Occultation Archive

Presenter(s): Dave Gault and Dave Herald

Affiliation(s): RASNZ Occultation Section

Session details: Sunday, 2020-04-12 06:00:00, STAR

Abstract

The Asteroid Occultation Archive is probably the most comprehensive record of mankind’s attempt to set the scale of the solar system’s family of asteroids, planets and planetary satellites, by direct measurements (not inferred by indirect assumptions). It is the work of thousands of individual observers, mostly dedicated amateur (unpaid) astronomers, and an equally dedicated team of prediction specialists and analysis specialist. It is intended to include all reported timings of observed asteroid, planet, and planetary satellite occultation events made by observers from around the world. Included are the results of over 4000 asteroid occultation data-sets, including hundreds of multi-chord observations We have recently reviewed the entire archive to remove errors, tag false positives, and ensure consistency of data over the duration of the observations. We have incorporated modern observing techniques, and wherever possible fitted Light Curve Inversion 3D models to the occultation data, thereby producing volume-equivalent diameters. The archive is maintained by Dave Herald’s Occult, and is uploaded annually to the NASA PDS.

Biography

The Daves have been observing occultation events for years (DaveH longer), with thousands of total lunar occultation observations, hundreds of lunar graze expeditions, and hundreds of asteroid occultations to our credit. DaveH is the author of Occult, which is the reference software for occultation and eclipse predictions and analysis.