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Posted by: AlexBlackwell May 17 2007, 01:41 AM

http://www.arm.ac.uk/press/2007/uranus_event03.html
Armagh Observatory
May 16, 2007

Posted by: tedstryk May 18 2007, 09:16 PM

Hmmm ...... two moons of Uranus passing in front of each other. Sounds impossible.


OK Ted, remember your 28, not 8.......

Posted by: Paolo May 19 2007, 07:22 AM

This is thanks to to Uranus being at equinox later this year. What a pity we don't have any spacecraft bound for Uranus now!
I hope that we will have one in 20 years, to see the hemisphere of the moons that Voyager 2 could not see (shown in gray in the Armagh Obs page)

Posted by: edstrick May 19 2007, 08:55 AM

I note that the report is of the event happening but with absolutely no information on exactly what data was taken and how well the observations went. duh.

Posted by: nprev May 19 2007, 05:56 PM

Hopefully the amateur astronomy community will come through here. Commercially available equipment has certainly gotten good enough to provide at least 1960s Jupiter-quality ground obs of Uranian mutual events.

In fact, I hope that JPL or somebody is doing an outreach to them. Refining the ephemerides for Uranian satellites would be very valuable for planning future missions, and these events are ideal for doing just that. Could also refine constraints on satellite masses, densities, etc.

Posted by: CAP-Team May 23 2007, 11:36 AM

I just stubled upon this event of Ariel and Miranda:

Posted by: nprev May 23 2007, 11:44 PM

Wow...what a beauty! Hopefully the pros and/or the ams got a good look at this...talk about a precision ephemeris verification event...