<html><head></head><body><div class="ydpe55a0b35yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div id="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386"><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr">Hi all,</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr">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 <span><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;display:inline !important;white-space:normal;orphans:2;float:none;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);">for about 0.5s</span></span> on July 29.</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr">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.</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr">The provisional shape profile, derived from data submitted so far, is available here:</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><a href="http://iota.jhuapl.edu/20190729PhaethonAug09.ppt" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://iota.jhuapl.edu/20190729PhaethonAug09.ppt</a></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">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).</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr">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.</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr">Yet another great success for IOTA and SwRI.</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr">Clear skies,</div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"><br></div><div class="ydpe55a0b35yiv0109769386ydp35568ba2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr"> Alex.<br></div></div></div></body></html>