TAOS Detected a Predicted Occultation by (1723) Klemola
while Running in Synchronous Mode with Two Telescopes
(5 Jun. 2004)
TAOS A
TAOS B
A bright star HIP 050535 (MV = 8.46) was occulted by
an asteroid (1723) Klemola (MV = 15.7, diameter = 31 km)
at around 12:10 5th Jun. 2004 (UTC).
This event was predicted by Dr. Sato with a maximal occultation duration
around 1.3 seconds, only.
Its shadow was expected to pass through the central part of Taiwan,
which is close to where the TAOS site is located.
Using a special zipper mode operation,
two working TAOS telescopes are able to identify this event clearly
while running in a synchronous mode.
Above jpeg pictures were obtained from the raw data
taken by TAOS A and TAOS B telescopes
(6 meters apart from each other).
The time interval is 0.25 seconds between the readout of two row blocks.
Each row block has a physical size of 2048 by 64 pixels
in this observation.
Though, the system is yet to be well-calibrated,
an occultation lasts for at least four row blocks
(256 pixels in the horizontal direction) is still clearly visible.
The difference between these two zipper images are majorly due to
the mismatch of the telescope pointing between A and B
and the improper compensation of the two output channels of camera B.
TAOS enclosures were operated by local assistant (Mr. Stone).
Limit switches were temporarily disabled for this event
(elevation angle around 45 degrees).
Both TAOS A and TAOS B telescopes were controlled remotely from Taipei
and were running in synchronous mode by Dr. Wen, Chih-Yi.
It shows us the power of TAOS zipper mode operation
and the capability of controlling more than one telescope
with TAOS control software.
TAOS is a collaboration between Academia Sinica (Taiwan),
National Central University (Taiwan),
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US),
Yonsei University (Korea),
and other individuals from
University of Pennsylvenia (US),
UC Berkeley (US), NASA Ames (US),
SLAC (US), University of Arizona (US).
Last Updated by S. K. King 6/7/2004
