[ Updated 2026 Jan 19 - added links to light polution and family history]

Family History Research:
Useful page on this site with external links.

Lunar Graze Occultation Predictions

2026-Jan-07 20Tau (BAA Handbook no 2) near Glasgow, Scotland @2130UT
2026-Jan-07 16 Tau (BAA Handbook no 3) near Inverness, Scotland @2100UT

Lunar Reporting:

Use the Full Occult4 suite, or just the lunar-report "part". Download here. I have added a Test.dat file to the zip as an example.
Please NOTE: This lunar-report runs on W10. (But i have not fully tested it for many events). It will not warn of errors in observation time, or star ID. This is because the lunar-report can't calculate the circumstances of the event (Occult4 does). This is to say, it is blind to errors.

Occult4 download page: http://lunar-occultations.com/iota/occult4.htm

Light Pollution links

Interactive Map-1 Lightpollutionmap.app - gives rather pessimistic Bortle values!

Interactive Map-2 Lightpollutionmap.info - gives SQM values and Bortle Scale Wiki. On the optimistic side! - based on old data 10+ years old ?

CPRE has an interactive light pollution tool here

The variation in units of measurement is not helpful such as:
Bortle (subjective),
NanoWatts /sqr-cm /steradian,
milli candela /sqr-m,
mag /sqr-arcsec

From my own measurements and night sky views at Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire (Rural/Suburban transition).
In 2025 on a good dry night at 0100UT, i get: Bortle 4.5, SQM-L 20.9 +/- 0.1. Light pollution domes on the horizon from Bicestor (North), Banbury (East).

Past Campaigns

Comet 29P/Schwassmass-Wachmann -1 predicted to occult TYC 1888-00333-1 on 2023 May 7

90 Antiope on 2024 Sep 21 occults UCAC4 561-044345. Call for Observations

LU28 TNO target over UK and Europe on 2025 Jan 30.1 Call for Observations

Links to Journals and Indexes

ON - Occultation Newsletter Heritage Project. ( Oliver Kloes, IOTA-ES )
Note: ON was the main publication from IOTA (1974 - 2009) and can be accessed at https://iota-es.de/on_heritage.html

CORA- CORA [ Opens in a New tab ] Search occultation predictions (Mike Kretlow)
JoA - The Journal for Occultation Astronomy (JoA) index & abstract service from Mike at https://astro.kretlow.de/cora/joa/

NASA ADS - Astrophysics Data System. Index to publications in Astronomy. Alternative index direct link to JoA (bibstem:"JoA")

The Astronomer Magazine (TA) list of some occultation reports

Observatory condensation control
BAA forum linked here for lots of ideas.
and here

Condensation .
BAA discussion: inside OTA, and use of dew shield for objectives

Remote control of Observatory
BAA discussion of ethernet here

Installation and use of a 2.7m dome link

More links

Occultwatcher software written by Hristo Pavlov

ESOP - European Symposium on Occultation Projects
IOTA - International Occultation Timing Association
IOTA-ES European Section

IOTA-ES Call for Observations - Oliver Klös

Global asteroid occultation predictions by Steve Preston

Derek Breit - BREIT IDEAS Observatory and predictions
EAON - European Asteroidal Network
BAA - British Astronomical Association
EURASTER Occultation Results

CORA Mike Kretlow's Collaborative Occultation Research on Asteroids (CORA) database query page

LUNAR-OCCULTATONS.COM/IOTA The IOTA main page for Lunar.

Lunar Reporting http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/lunarreport.htm
LunarReport Zip File: On the Stargazer server for download. This runs on W10 and i have added an example DAT file named "Test"
Gerhard Dangl's video timing analysis http://www.dangl.at/ausruest/vid_tim/vid_tim1.htm
Gerhard Dangl's M67 IMAGE comparison http://www.dangl.at/ausruest/cam_comp/cam_comp.htm

John Broughton Seasonal Distributuon of Observed Asteroid Occultations 2007-2014

Equipment: Camparison of mini DVR (SD card recordings) to DV-Tape [Canon Elura 80 or similar]
By Tony George, IOTA North America, Umatilla, Oregon:
http://tnorecon.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Comparison-of-Canon-Elura-80-camcorder-to-mdvr.pdf
Conclusion: The miniDVR is a useful device for brighter events, but has losses due to mpg compresion.

SKY&Telescope - observing at a glance
The Journal for Occultation Astronomy
Great Shefford Observatory - Asteroid monitoring and discovery by P.Birtwhistle
TANGRA for processing AVI to get light curves and timings

YOU-TUBE UPLOADS

Triton Occultation of 2017 Oct 05 https://youtu.be/f2t5Sla4DD0

81 Tau Graze on 2017 Feb 05 https://youtu.be/SsZkFPbXZIc

Lunar Eclipse Graze of 2015 https://youtu.be/MvTK6rHkX7A

(275) Sapientia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0lpfz_S5Js

Kapa Aquarii Graze http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Qa_a5mr9c

(42)ISIS Occultation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tJDHhScXRQ

(489) Comacina and 11.0 star in Aquila - 2019 July 26 https://youtu.be/L9ihysgmO2E

Cine of Aldebaran Graze 1978 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgXbyabAtiM
The first (known) continuous recording of a lunar graze occultation. An earlier recording by David Dunham was a sequence of still images.

Testing a TECSUN PL-660 with WWV reception in the UK http://youtu.be/0xroez2SkEQ

Radio Clocks Compared by video http://youtu.be/F9ixhxyKG2A

(3122) Florence Time lapse on 2017 Aug 30/31 https://youtu.be/Cf6R_a6_jl8

Double Star Graze with steps 2017 Aug 16 0330UT https://youtu.be/bwLhFISwfro

Delta Geminorun on 2019 Aug 27 with fade events https://youtu.be/yBMHWqw-0E8

Added: 2017 Oct 03 - Satellite constellation while monitoring asteroid occ https://youtu.be/6kDemS31JVU

Graze of 7th mag SAO 109952 on 2020 Feb 27, crescent moon with eight contacts https://youtu.be/j5JLZOoByik

Graze of 20 Tau on 2025-04-01 Graze of 20Tau 8 events

I-2-3 Reg
This Stargazer web-site was migrated to 1-2-3 Reg arround start of 2025, and I down graded the host package to "basic" in Sepember 2025. At the same time the certificate for https was added.

1-2-3 Reg Terms (Acceptable Use Policy - UK) can be read here: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/terms/aup/