I recorded an approximate 4 second occultation by minor planet (1166) Sakuntala at 04:24 this (Friday) morning from the ATMoB Ed Knight Observatory. Equipment included the EKO C14, a Supercircuits PC164EX2 camera and a BlackBox Sprite GPS-based video time inserter. Exact times of this occultation were;

D: 08:24:38.969 UT
R: 08:24:43.700 UT

1166 Sakuntala is a main belt asteroid orbiting the Sun. Approximately 29 kilometers in diameter, it makes a revolution around the Sun once every 4 years. It completes one rotation once every 6 hours. It was discovered by Praskovjya Georgievna Parkhomenko on June 27, 1930. Its provisional designation was 1930 MA.

During a perihelic opposition, when Sakuntala is only 1 AU from the Earth, it can get as bright as apparent magnitude 10.5, as it did on July 7th, 2007 and will occur on June 30th, 2011 when it will be at magnitude 10.7, being one of the latest discovered asteroids to become so bright to be seen on small telescopes. (source: Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1166_Sakuntala)

I captured the following video of the occultation as part of a scientific investigation by the International Occultation Timing Association. The video clearly shows the designated star ‘wink out’ for ~4 seconds, which represents an approximate cross-sectional chord of about 26 miles.

Here is a link to the pretty video The lightcurve will be posted as soon as it’s verified.

 

Here is a diagram from NASA JPL showing 1166 Sakuntala’s orbit. Click on the image go to the JPL website.