Help us find asteroid 146 Lucina's satellite Tuesday morning! In April 1982, an occultation (eclipse of a star) by a probable satellite of this asteroid was video recorded with the 1-meter telescope at Meudon Observatory near Paris. The occultation by Lucina itself was observed in a different path crossing northern Spain. The observation implies an object at least 6 kilometers across about 1,600 km from Lucina, as reported in Icarus, Vol. 61, pp. 224-231.

Observers across most of the USA, northern Mexico, Ontario, and southern Quebec have a chance to make confirmatory observations of the satellite if they monitor the easily found 8.2-magnitude star SAO 77528, about 2° east-southeast of Zeta Tauri, for a few minutes just before 9^h Universal Time on Tuesday morning, August 21st.

Especially those with video equipment in most of North America are encouraged to record the star for a possible quick blink, expected to last about 0.2 second, that could be caused by the satellite. In addition, observers in southern Arizona, northern New Mexico, Kansas, northern Missouri, southern Iowa, northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, lower Michigan, central Ontario, southwestern Quebec, and some nearby areas will have a spectacular occultation by Lucina that will last almost 5 seconds; visual, video, and CCD observers throughout those areas are especially encouraged to observe to help us determine the size and shape of Lucina.

Lucina, a C-class ("carbonaceous") asteroid, is expected to be about 132 km across. This is one of the better asteroidal occultations in North America this summer, and the best until September 20th, when Lucina will occult a 7.9-magnitude star in a path from central California to northern Minnesota (and give the West another opportunity to look for the satellite).

For more information and instructions for reporting your observations, see my website:

• Occultation (Eclipse) of SAO 77528 by (146) Lucina