Bruce Berger (me) and Glenn Meurer

My headline might seem a little risqué, but since this is an astronomy website it’s not what you think. As you read in the post below, the ATMoB team captured data on the occultation of a 10.5 magnitude star in Aquarius by a 129km diameter (est.) asteroid named 694 Ekard. Just 12 hours later, a slightly dimmer star (10.8 mag) was eclipsed by an approximately 75km diameter asteroid – 79 Eurynome and the ATMoB team captured that one also. It’s not common for a stationary team to capture two events in one night, so we feel both lucky and honored to accomplish such a feat.

We reported the occultation time as 09:47:34.4 UT and it lasted 2.5 seconds. Unfortunately the asteroid was not visible during the event.

79 Eurynome (pronounced /ew-RIN-a-mee) is a quite large and bright main belt asteroid composed of silicate rock. Eurynome was discovered by James Craig Watson on September 14, 1863. It was his first asteroid discovery. It is named after one of the many Eurynomes in Greek mythology.

James C. Watson - U Michigan Archives

Here’s what Wikipedia says about it’s discoverer, James Craig Watson, …”Watson (January 28, 1838–November 22, 1880) was a Canadian-American astronomer born in the village of Fingal, Ontario Canada. His family relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1850. Watson was considered a child prodigy in mathematics, and spent only a day and a half in high school before quitting, because he felt he knew more about mathematics than the teacher. At age 15 he was matriculated at the University of Michigan, where he studied the classical languages. He later was lectured in astronomy by professor Franz Brünnow.

He was the second director of Detroit Observatory (from 1863 to 1879), succeeding Franz Brünnow. He wrote the textbook Theoretical Astronomy in 1868.

He discovered 22 asteroids, beginning with 79 Eurynome in 1863. One of his asteroid discoveries, 139 Juewa was made in Beijing when Watson was there to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. The name Juewa was chosen by Chinese officials (in modern pinyin, pronounced ruìhuá).

He was a strong believer in the existence of the planet Vulcan, a hypothetical planet closer to the Sun than Mercury, which is now known not to exist (however the existence of small Vulcanoid planetoids remains a possibility). He believed he had seen such two such planets during a July 1878 solar eclipse in Wyoming.

James Craig Watson Medal

He died of peritonitis at the age of only 42. He had amassed a considerable amount of money through non-astronomical business activities. By bequest he established the James Craig Watson Medal, awarded every three years by the National Academy of Sciences for contributions to astronomy.

The asteroid 729 Watsonia is named in his honour, as is the lunar crater Watson.”

Bruce

Astronomy