Tuesday, August 23, 2022

DiPo 2022, Day 0 - 2022.08.22

Day "0" has not much to talk about... Just a travel to half-way...

So I talk about what are the DiPo Missions!

"Di" and "Po" are the two first letters for "Didymos" and "Polymele"! These are two small bodies in the solar system! Bothe will "fly" in front of stars in two consecutive nights, and visible from the "same" region in the North of Portugal! So, on the next day, my travelling plans will take me to Oporto, to meet up with the rest of the international team that has put this joint campaign together!

(65803) Didymos is the interest of ACROS Team, and ESA, to undertake some space-mission-thing...

And (15094) Polymele is in the interest of Lucy Mission, for NASA's space-mission-thing too..

Apparently they all want to know where these asteroids are, so people on Earth -- like us -- need to observe stars being occulted by the moving rocks..

And that is what I am going to take part in :)
Didymos occultation will happen on 2022.8.25, and Polymele will be on the following day.

"M12" is not the Messier object I hinted earlier, but instead is a code for a special set of observer locations where I must be observing from... The locations for the other mission are still not final yet! Day 1 (2022.08.23), will be the day for searching for those!

Monday, August 22, 2022

DiPo 2022 Missions

 Ah-ha! A new Mission!

This afternoon a new week-long mission begins!

To keep suspense up, more details will come soon :)

But generally speaking my attributions are:

  • Observe and time 2 events!
  • Provide back-up equipment
  • Provide "communication services"
  • Geo-suggestive help :-)
  • Other international fun stuff full of knowledgeable participants!

So far only the second assignment is known, and that is M12 :-D

Have fun with wikipedia entry on M12

Messier 12 - picture by Hubble, via wikipedia.org