Directions for Use of Asteroid Occultation Reporting Form An attempt is being made to encourage observers of asteroid occultations to report their observations in a way that is best suited to using the OCCULT program for analysis. To that end, a new Report Form has been created using Excel. If you don’t have Excel, this document will also work with the spreadsheet component of OpenOffice. It is available at OpenOffice.org. Beware; it is a large download – 93Mb. It has also been found that this file will work for users of Macintosh computers. On this form, GRAY cells contain required information that needs to be filled in by the observer. Some of the information in the GRAY cells is in the form of pull-down menus. YELLOW cells are optional. You may fill in as you see fit. You may move through the form one entry location after another by using the TAB key. You may also select any cell using the mouse and clicking on the cell. Many of the GRAY cells have pull-down menus. This was done to match the analysis program being used, OCCULT. When you are on a GRAY cell, a down arrow to the right of the cell will indicate the presence of a pull-down menu. Click on the down-arrow to see the choices. Scroll to the correct menu item and release. Only choices shown in the pull-down menu for that particular item are available for use. Some choices are already present as default values. First, use the pull-down menu at the upper left to indicate whether you saw an occultation or not. The default is Positive. If you didn't see an occultation, change that to Negative. Then change the “no” to “yes” in the “Miss?” cell near the bottom of the form. Remember, Negative observations are important for defining the maximum dimensions of the asteroid. We have added "unsure" to the drop-down menu in the upper left corner for those events you have some doubts about. If you choose this selection, also choose "maybe" in the drop-down menu in the "Was this a Miss?" box. Then, be sure to add Comments about this observation so that the Coordinator has information to help analyze this Report. Fill-in the Year, Month, Day, and Predicted Time of the event. Note that Year and Month have pull-down menus. Please be sure to record all times in UTC and use the format shown. Examples: 00:07:24 12:08:05 Fill-in the Asteroid Number and Name. There are separate cells for these two items. Choose the Star Catalog from the pull-down menu and then enter the appropriate Star Number in the cell to the right. Please note: for TYC numbers, the format, including dashes, is important. Example: 1234-56789-1. For UCAC2 stars, 8 digits are required. HIP stars have 3, 4, 5 or 6 digits For NOMAD catalog stars, the dash is important. For example: 992-191471 Observer(s): List observers. If more than one, separate with a /. Example: John Doe/Jane Doe Observing Location: As a check on your latitude and longitude, please record the named city, town, or village nearest your observing site. Latitude and Longitude: These may be entered in any of 3 formats. First, choose the format by using the pull- down menu. The format used by OCCULT is the default. Then record your position so that it corresponds exactly to the format you chose. You may choose to show higher precision – more decimal places – as long as the format is maintained. Enter your Latitude. Be sure to leave spaces as shown in the format. Choose N or S from the pull-down menu. Enter your Longitude in a similar manner. Choose E or W from the pull-down menu. Enter a numerical value for your Elevation and choose m (meters) or ft (feet) from the pull-down menu for units. From the pull-down menu, choose the appropriate Datum. Telescope: Enter a numerical value for the Aperture and then choose a Unit from the pull-down menu. Type in a numerical value for the f/ratio of the telescope/focal reducer/barlow combination you are using. If this is a visual observation, type in a numerical value for the Magnification of the eyepiece used. If using other than visual techniques, leave this blank. From the pull-down menu, choose the Type of Telescope you are using. Timing: Select from the pull-down menu the best description of your Timing technique. Method: Select from the pull-down menu the best description of your Method. Asteroid visible? If you wish, choose whether or not the asteroid was visible at any time during your observation. Conditions: From the pull-down menus, describe your observing conditions. You may add further details under Additional Comments at the bottom. Observations: Enter the times as appropriate. Any times that you did not measure or observe (star and asteroid merged, for example) should be left blank. Notice that the D and R times are the only times read by OCCULT. However, Observation Start and Observation End times may be important in the event of inaccurate predict times and/or satellites. In the Accuracy column, type in a +/- estimate of the accuracy of the time given. Example: +/- 0.5 Under PE, record your Personal Equation for the event. Example: 0.9 Then indicate if you applied the PE to your time, should that be appropriate. Usually PE is only used for visual/voice recordings. If additional information is needed, provide that in the Remarks column for that time. Use the check cells for “2nd star?” and “Miss?” as needed. The default for both is “no”. The “Miss?” cell should be changed to “yes” if you also reported Negative at the top of the form. If a multiple star system is occulted and you have determined separate events times for more than one component of the star system, then you should submit a separate report for each component for which you have determined times. The report for the second and subsequent components should have “yes” in the “2nd star?” cell. Also, in the file name discussed below, place a 2 after your last name for the second component, a 3 for the third component, etc. Additional Comments can be made about any part of the observation that helps in analyzing the observation or in clarifying any entered information. Please use this format to name your file: yyyymmdd_MPNumber_StarName_YourLastName.xls For example: 20061003_25_HIP_115725_Timerson.xls Or: 20061007_31_TYC_2979_00969_1_Timerson.xls Example for a second component: 20061007_31_TYC_2979_00969_1_Timerson2.xls Mac users ONLY, use this format: yymmdd_MPNumber_YourLastName.xls EMAIL ALL REPORTS, POSITIVE or NEGATIVE TO: reports@asteroidoccultation.com