ILLUSTRATION BY JAY RYAN, HTTP://WWW.SKYWISE.

COM

celestial calendar
98

May 1998 Sky & Telescope

ae

5306

SAO
139602

5339
8
110 ly

VIRGO

13h52m

May 4, V Coronae Borealis, 154639, 7.5; 6, S

Ursae Majoris, 123961, 7.8; 6, R Draconis, 163266,
7.6 (see chart, July 1993, page 70); 8, T Cephei,
210868, 6.0 (see chart, September 1994, page 41);
10, R Cassiopeiae, 235350, 7.0; 17, R Hydrae,
132422, 4.5 (see chart, May 1996, page 69); 20, R
Andromedae, 001838, 7.0; 25, T Eridani, 035124,
8.0; 31, V Botis, 142539, 7.0.
The data above are, in order: the day of the
month near which the star should be at maximum brightness; the stars name; its designation
number, which gives rough right ascension (first
four digits) and declination (boldface if southern); and the stars typical visual magnitude at
peak brightness. The actual maximum may be
brighter or fainter and many days early or late. All
predictions are by Janet Mattei using recent data
of the American Association of Variable Star Ob-

1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

ADAPTED FROM MILLENNIUM STAR ATLAS

5343

oc

Asteroid occultation. On the evening of May

12th, during or just after twilight, telescope users
in parts of the Southwest and Mexico can try timing the 11th-magnitude minor planet 25 Phocaea
occulting an 8.3-magnitude star near Spica. The
occultation should come around 2:53 Universal
Time May 13th and last for up to 7 seconds. The
tricky part will be finding the star quickly in the
fading dusk assuming the sky will be dark
enough at your location at all.
North is up on the finder chart here, adapted
from the Millennium Star Atlas. For more information see the February issue, page 86, or the asteroid occultation Web page of the International
Occultation Timing Association (IOTA), accessible through SKY Online at http://www.skypub.
com/occults/occults.html. Late updates may also
be on IOTAs voice recording at 301-474-4945 a
few days or hours beforehand.
IOTA hopes to notify as many observers as
possible when a last-minute update brings an asteroid occultation path into their area. To get on
the list for e-mail notification, send your location
and e-mail address to dunham@erols.com.
Lunar occultation correction. On the morning of May 9th the dark limb of the waxing gibbous
Moon will occult a 4.8-magnitude star in Virgo. In
the timetable in the January issue, page 97, the star
is misidentified as (Iota) Virginis; it is actually l 2
Virginis, better known as 74 Virginis.
Variable-star maxima. April 7, T Normae,
153654, 7.4; 14, T Camelopardalis, 043065, 8.0; 15,
R Carinae, 092962, 4.6; 18, R Aquarii, 233815, 6.5;
20, R Octantis, 055686, 7.9; 22, R Caeli, 043738, 7.9.

Ph

calendar notes

servers, 25 Birch St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (http://

www.aavso.org/).
Universal Time (UT or UTC) is used worldwide
by all who need to avoid confusion between time
zones.
To convert a UT time and date to a standard
time and date in North America, subtract the following hours: to get Eastern Standard Time, 5;
CST, 6; MST, 7; PST, 8; Alaska, 9; or Hawaii, 10. To
obtain daylight saving time (summer time),
subtract one hour less than these values. If you get
a negative number of hours, add 24; in this case
the result is on the date before the UT date given.
For example, 6:45 UT May 9th is 2:45 a.m. on
the 9th EDT and 11:45 p.m. on the 8th PDT.
You may find it easier just to remember when
0:00 UT happens in your time zone. This is on the
previous date at 7 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. CST, 5 p.m.
MST, or 4 p.m. PST. When daylight saving time is
in effect: 8 p.m. EDT, 7 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. MDT, or
5 p.m. PDT.
A note on sky positions. In Sky & Telescope descriptions of where things appear with respect to
the horizon or zenith are written for the worlds
midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude are for North America, except
as otherwise noted.
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