An Occultation Event by Asteroid (1723) Klemola Detected by TAOS

The bright star HIP 050535 (V = 8.46) was occulted by an asteroid (1723) Klemola (V = 15.7, diameter = 31 km) at 12:10 on 5 June 2004 (UTC). This event was predicted by Dr. Isao Sato of the Nakano Star Gazers Club, and was expected to have a maximum duration of only 1.3 seconds. Its shadow was expected to pass over Lulin Observatory in central Taiwan, the site of the TAOS telescopes. Using high-speed [zipper mode] observations (4 Hz), two TAOS telescopes (TAOS A and TAOS B) were able to detect this event. While the system is yet to be well-calibrated, the occultation event lasted for at least four measurements, corresponding to a duration of about 1 second.