Plotting Asteroid Occultation Paths with Occult
Setup
You should use the latest version of Occult. As of the end of March 2001, the latest version is version 1.4 with the March 2001 revision to the asteroid prediction files. The March 2001 upgrade adds the ability to keep two separate sets of asteroid elements: the Main file of asteroid elements and the User file of asteroid elements. For the most accurate path predictions you must enter the asteroid elements in the user file and the epoch of these elements must be very close to the time of the occultation event.
I have installed the Goffin star catalog for Occult. The Goffin catalog is not necessary but it will occasionally save time. As of March 2001, the Goffin catalog distributed with Occult includes accurate positions for the Hipparcos stars but the Tycho data is Tycho-1 and is not as accurate as the newer Tycho-2 catalog positions. For this reason, I always look up the star's positional information from the Tycho-2 catalog for my updates. The update summaries will include the star's position for the time of the event based on either Tycho-2 or Hipparcos catalog data.
Instructions
Page last updated: Apr 5, 2001.
Questions? contact Steve Preston