The 2011 season is underway

Dear Haumea fans:

The first attempt to observe a mutual event this season is soon to be underway at Siding Spring!

The 2010 HST astrometry has been incorporated into the orbit fit by Darin and the "warning very preliminary" flag has been removed from the 2011 predictions.

Here's what I think I currently know about who is observing when:
(Michele=Bannister, ANU; Heather=Knutson, Berkeley; Mike=Brown, Caltech; Meg=Schwamb, Yale)


2/3    Michele/SSO 2.3m
3/12    Heather/Lick 3m        Mike/Palomar 5m        Meg/WIYN
5/6    Mike/Keck 10m        Meg/WIYN
6/11    Mike/WHT 4m
6/30    Meg/WIYN


If there are any corrections/additions please let me know.

I think this season will be excellent. We now know the rotation period of Hi'iaka accurately and I believe we will be able to phase it up to whenever we get accurate non-event photometry. We also have had a clear detection from HST, so we know that things are actually happening!

There are a couple of nicely placed events that we are missing entirely.

3/4 has an occultation egress visible from the western US
3/22 has an occultation beautifully placed for Hawaii
3/30 is nice from Hawaii and Australia
4/17 is nice from the Canaries
4/28 is nice from Western US/Hawaii
5/16 Hawaii/Australia
6/22 occultation egress Western US/Hawaii

Mike