This page provides links to several occelmnt files (generated by Occult) containing worldwide events occuring in 2025. The OccultWatcher prediction service will provide accurate predictions for all these events - beginning two months prior to the event. The occelment files shared on this page are advance predictions - designed to give observers an opportunity to review the events much farther into the future (for planning purposes).
These occelmnt files are divided into two sets. The first set of occelment files includes the events which will be tagged as the IOTA events on OccultWatcher. These IOTA events include the worlwide events with best path statistics and brighter stars. The second set of occelmnt files are the much larger "raw" search files from which the IOTA events where selected. These raw search files are monthly files containing roughly 20,000 to 30,000 events per month. In addition, each set (IOTA and raw) is divided into two groups: generic asteroid events and priority asteroid events. The priority asteroids files include predictions for the asteroids which have been flagged as priority objects for occultation observations. The generic asteroids files include the predictions for all other asteroids.
Observers can download the monthly occelmnt files, then use the program Occult to review the path location and many other aspects of each event in the occelmnt file. Occult is a free program which provides many options for filtering events in the file to locate events of interest. Occult can search for events near a particular location, filter by star magnitude, filter by telescope size, and many other event attributes. You will find information installing and using Occult at the Occult Resources Page. You can review the event predictions in an occelmnt file with only a basic install of Occult (no need to download large star catalogs).
*** These path predictions are NOT the most up-to-date predictions. To obtain most up-to-date path predictions, for detailed observation planning, use OccultWatcher or OccultWatcherCloud. Starting with 2024, the predictions on asteroidoccultation.com are only provided to help observers identify events of interest when doing long-range planning.
Use the following links to download the occelmnt files for Occult. I have uploaded one file contatining all of the events with path prediction maps posted on asteroidoccultation.com. In addition, I have uploaded the raw (unfiltered) occelmnt files for each month (as generated by a search via Occult). The raw files are divided into three groups: general asteroids with a diameter greater than 8km; NEAs with a diameter greater than 100 meters; and TNOs + Centaurs. These files may contain more than 30,000 events. Occult may show a warning dialog for more than 20,000 events (unless you have modified the relevant setting).
2025-Jun-23 : initial posting