IOTA has also set up regional coordinators for the Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, and Japan. All reports will be emailed to these coordinators for inclusion into the observations database. At the present time, Europe and Africa will send their reports to the Australian Coordinator

There are four ways to log and report your observations. The old email-76 method is no longer to be used since it does not conform to the new format. Please do NOT use this method!

• Within the Occult v4.0.5 software program there is a module for logging and reporting observations. It can be downloaded in full here

• For those that do not want to download the full Occult software program, a stand alone Report Editor is available, and recommended by this site. It is the same module found in the full package and includes instrutions on its use. It can be downloaded here

• For those that are familiar with Microsoft's EXCEL software, there are those that created templates than can be used and then email to the respective coordinators. The Excel template can be downloaded from here

• For those that use the Lunar Occultation Workbench (L.O.W), the software authors are in the process of developing software for reporting observations. The L.O.W. software program can be found here

At the time of this posting, the following people are regional coordinators. Any questions regarding reporting should be directed to them. NOTE: Please remove the "spamnot" after the "@" in their e-mail address before contacting!

And finally, beginning September 1, 2008 ALL reports should be sent only to IOTA. Do not send any reports to ILOC.

As other regions come on-line Regional Coordinators will be announced for those areas (e.g. Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East, etc) this webpage will post the names and email addresses of those coordinators.

The following is a set of emails, composed by David Herald and sent to various mailing lists and groups of occultation observers. The are reposted here for those that have not received or read any of these. The are in their entirety and are as follows:

Date: 28 August 2008

The most significant change for 27 years in reporting lunar occultations is now underway.

Central collection of lunar occultation observations commenced in the 1930's, with it becoming the responsibility of the Royal Greenwich Observatory within about 2 years. That responsibility was transferred to the Japanese Hydrographic Department in 1981. It is now transferring to IOTA.

IOTA will commence collecting observations for Africa, Australasia, and North and South America, as from 1 September. Commencement for Japan and Europe will occur in the near future.

There are a number of very important issues associated with this change. Rather than put them all into one very long email which no-one will read, I have split them up into 5 emails, as follows:

• Occult - new version available - version 4.0.5 - giving details of the new version of Occult that will support the new arrangements
• Lunar Occultations - new format - giving details on the changes that have been made to the report format
• Lunar Occultations - the reporting process - giving an overview of how the new reporting process will operate
• Lunar Occultation reporting software - listing the software packages that are available to report observations.
• Reporting for European observers, until LOW has e-mail reporting functionality available

I urge everyone who makes lunar occultation observations to read all these messages in detail. I know this can be tedious, but this is the biggest change in the reporting arrangements for 27 years.

Also, if you know of people that make lunar occultation observations, but are not subscribers of the various email groups, please forward these emails on to them.

If you have queries about he new process, please raise them on the groups. Chances are that someone else will have a similar query.

I am confident that the new arrangements will work very well. But equally I have no doubt that some unexpected issues will arise somewhere - I wish I could predict where! I just ask for everyone's patience and tolerance in those situations.

Finally, at this significant time I think it is appropriate that we thank ILOC for the valuable service they have provided us for the last 27 years.

Dave Herald
Canberra, Australia
August 2008

A new version of Occult is now available. Version 4.0.5.

For those already using Occult4, the basic upgrade involves a 1.8MB download. The download to update Occult is available at: http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/occult4.htm When you first run the new version, you will be taken to a download page where you can update a range of files (as described on the above page).

[For those that only read instructions when something doesn't work, the direct download of the update is at: http://www.lunar-occultations.com/occult4/occult405%20update.zip]

The main changes in this version of Occult are associated with supporting the processing and archiving of lunar occultation observations. The Japanese Hydrographic Department (ILOC) has been the agency responsible for collecting lunar occultation observations since 19981. Unfortunately they are unable to continue with that role, and the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) has agreed to take on the responsibility.

As part of this responsibility:

• the lunar occultation report format has been revised;
• Occult has been revised to support the new format, and to email observation reports to regional coordinators;
• Occult has been revised to allow regional coordinators to reduce the observations, and make them ready for archiving in the Astronomical Data Centres of VizieR.

I will provide further details of these changes in a separate message.

Additionally there have been a range of updates and improvements, with the following being the more noteworthy:

• Lunar occultation reports are emailed from within Occult
• A download form to make it easy to update a full range of data files
• Update of the JPL planetary Ephemeris source, to DE414 and DE421. This is an optional download, that improves the accuracy of both asteroid and lunar occultations
• Revision of the Tycho2 catalogue, to incorporate the star positions and proper motions from the Hipparcos2 catalogue. This is an optional download that improves the accuracy of asteroid predictions involving Hipparcos stars
• Complete rework of the files of historical lunar occultation observations, including a new reduction using the DE421 ephemeris. This is an optional download, but essential for grazing occultation profiles. It completely supersedes the files of historical occultation observations used in previous versions of Occult
• For lunar occultations and grazes - if the star is likely to have a significant apparent diameter, the possible duration of a fade, or diameter of the star at the distance of the moon (for grazes) is indicated

This is an important update to Occult. I urge all users of Occult to update to this new version.

Dave Herald
Canberra, Australia
August 2008

As most will be aware, the Japanese Hydrographic Department (ILOC) announced earlier this year that they would be unable to continue in their role of collecting lunar occultation observations. IOTA has agreed to take on this responsibility.

A number of people have been working hard with developing an updated reporting format, and software solutions to support the reporting of observations, and the analysis of observations. We have now reached the stage where IOTA will be commencing to collect Lunar Occultation Observations for the Americas, Australasia, and Africa as from 1 September 2008. There will be separate announcements for Europe and Japan in the near future.

COLLECTION STRATEGY

The Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, which handles the archiving of data in the Astronomical Date Centres of VizieR, has agreed to archive lunar occultation observations. This is significant for several reasons. Firstly, the observations will (for the first time) be archived in 'proper' data archives so that we can be confident that the data is secure in the long-term. Secondly, it is archived with 'main stream' astronomical data. Thirdly, the data will be readily available for anyone to conduct research using it. [added note: The structure of the archived data can be viewed here]

The data collection process may simply be described as the process of getting the observations from the observer into the archive. [Of course, we will be making use of the data before it is archived - but that is secondary to the process of archiving.] In setting up the process, there were two key objectives:

• The process must not be critically dependant upon a particular piece of software; and
• The process must not be critically dependant upon any one individual

The process that has evolved is based on the model used for collecting asteroid occultation observations. That is, someone in a region has responsibility for collecting observations in that region, with those observations being subsequently collected by a more central person for final processing into the archive. In this model, the regional collectors are in a position to assume the role of the central person relatively easily. Similarly, the regional collectors can provide support for new regional collectors.

On the software side, there are 4 separate applications, from 3 different authors, to support the new report format.

DETAILED ARRANGEMENTS

As of 1 September, regional coordinators (collectors of observations) have been identified for North America, Australasia and Japan. Additionally the North American coordinator has agreed to collect the observations from South America; and the Australian collector has agreed to collect the observations from Africa. [However, if the volumes from those two regions become significant, we would be looking for coordinators in those regions...!]

The regional coordinators will do the initial processing of the observations, including sending a preliminary reduction to the observer. Additionally, they will be converting the observations into the format used to archive the observations. Periodically, they will forward the observations to a global coordinator who will merge all the observations into a single file - with that file being periodically archived.

More details about this arrangement may be found at: http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/lunarreport.htm and http://www.timerson.net/IOTA/ReportingLunarOccultationsAug28Text.txt

IMPLEMENTATION

1. In other messages I have referred to the various software packages that support the new reporting process. Relevant email addresses for reporting observations are included in those packages (with facilities to readily get the 'latest' addresses. Observers should obtain their software solution of choice, and start using it.

2. As from 1 Sept 2008 (0hrs UT for the pedantic!) the coordinators for Nth & Sthn America, Australia, New Zealand and Africa will start collecting observations. Observers in those regions can start sending observations to them from that date. If you have observations ready to be reported, DO NOT SEND THEM TO ILOC. Send them to your regional coordinator. [This will make the transition easier and faster.]

3. FOR ALL OBSERVERS - WHEREVER YOU ARE LOCATED. Graze observations should now be sent to the graze coordinator - Mitsuru Soma.

4. Observers in Japan and Europe. Please hold on to any unreported 'ordinary' occultation observations until you are advised that your local coordinator is ready to receive them.

Dave Herald
Canberra, Australia
August 2008

The new arrangements for reporting lunar occultation observations are being supported by 4 software solutions for creating the report. Those solutions are (in alphabetical order):

EXCEL-BASED REPORT FORM

Created by John Talbot (New Zealand) and Brad Timerson (USA), this uses an Excel Worksheets for Observer Information, Telescope Information, and Observations. The Form makes extensive use of drop-down lists with common terminology. The resulting Excel file is emailed to the regional coordinator, who uses an Excel macro to convert the spreadsheet data into the final report format for reduction and archiving using Occult or LOW.
Download from http://www.timerson.net/IOTA
The download is about 30K.

LOW {LUNAR OCCULTATION WORKBENCH)

This is a comprehensive lunar occultation prediction and reduction package written by Eric Limburg (of the Dutch Occultation Association). Like Occult, LOW offers a complete reduction of an observation, so that any data entry errors can be immediately identified. Eric has not quite finished updating the program to use the new format - but a beta version should be available in the near future.
The LOW download page is at: http://low4.doa-site.nl/index.html
The download is about 88MB.

LUNARREPORT

This program is effectively the Lunar Observations editor from Occult, packaged as a stand-alone application. It contains extensive data entry checks. However it does not include a star catalogue or a lunar ephemeris - so (like the Excel report) it cannot perform a reduction of the observations. It can be downloaded from:
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/occult4/lunarreport.zip
The download is only 194K.

OCCULT This is the full-featured Occult program, which deals with Lunar occultation predictions and reductions, Asteroid occultation predictions and reductions, eclipses and transits (plus more....) It can be downloaded from:
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/occult4.htm
either as an update to an existing version of Occult 4 (1.8MB download) or the completepackage (28MB) There are optional downloads of up to another 130MB.....

Dave Herald
Canberra, Australia
August 2008

LUNAR OCCULTATION REPORT FORMAT

As mentioned in other emails, the responsibility for collecting lunar occultation occultations is moving from ILOC to IOTA. When ILOC took over the responsibility for Lunar Occultations in 1981, the report form was extensively revised from that used by Royal Greenwich Observatory - but has not been significantly revised since then. In recent years Video has become a common observing tool, and GPS has become common both for coordinate measurement and time base. Neither of these developments were well supported in the ILOC report format.

Additionally, several years ago ILOC concluded that their system of allocating Station and Observer codes was breaking down. As a result, they completely changed the format of their internal file of reported observations - with the site details being included against every observation in the file.

The transfer of responsibility to IOTA has provided an ideal opportunity to revise the report format. This was approached with the following principles:

• Minimal changes from the existing format, to maximise the continuity of data between the ILOC data and new observations
• New codes to support modern observing techniques
• New fields to support data items that need to be reported
• Reformatting data fields so that decimal points are explicit, and to include the full century year

The following is a detailed summary of the changes that have been made;

• a. A detailed set of numerical codes for a full range of horizontal datums (rather than a free-text unconstrained identification). Note that WGS84 has two express entries [0, and 4], as well as several effective entries by way of modern national datums
• b. A separate datum specification for the vertical datum. IMPORTANT. There are only two vertical datums in use - Mean Sea Level (MSL), and spheroid. Most GPS receivers return elevations referenced to MSL, even when the horizontal datum is set to WGS84. Note that the preferred vertical datum (and world standard) is MSL, not spheroid

2. OBSERVER DETAILS

a. The email address of each observer may be included (but will not be archived). This will allow a graze coordinator to send preliminary reductions or queries to individual observers, and for a regional coordinator to send the reductions to all observers individually.

3. EVENT CODES

• a. The event categorisations have been split up differently. One field relates to whether the event is a D, R, blink, flash etc. A second field specifies whether it was against the bright or dark limb, or in the umbra. A third field indicates a graze.
• b. Object identifier. Proper identification of planets, their moons, and asteroids.

4. METHOD OF OBSERVING CODES - CODES ADDED FOR:

• - video with time insertion
• - video with some other form of time linking, with time being extracted using a frame-by-frame basis (eg LiMovie); and
• - video with some other form of time linking, with time being extracted merely by replaying the video.

5. TIME SOURCE (PREVIOUSLY CALLED METHOD OF TIMING) - CODES ADDED FOR:

• - GPS 1-PPS output (as used in GPS-based video inserters)
• - Network Time Protocol (NTP)
• - GPS screen display, or a normal PC clock (both very low accuracy....)

6. REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCES CODE ADDED FOR:

• - event observed during daylight (sun higher than -6 deg).

7. DOUBLE STARS

• A new field added to allow the WDS component identifier to be specified. [Neither RGO or ILOC ever corrected double star observations to refer to the relevant component. For example, observations of Antares B are returned with residuals of about -2". This new field allows proper reduction of double star components.]

8. GRADUAL EVENTS

• If an event was gradual, the ILOC report had the duration in the comments. In the new format this is a data item in itself. There is also a data item to indicate whether the reported time is at the 50% light level (appropriate for large stars) or at the 25% level (appropriate if Fresnel diffraction was involved.)

9. COMMENTS

• Like the ILOC format, the new format allows observers to provide comments against each observations. However those comments will not be archived with the observations. Their only value is in assisting the proper reduction of an observation. [NOTE the ILOC data set does not contain any of the comments that people may have reported in the past. For those who think that comments should be retained - think about the issues associated with unconstrained free text being entered by unrelated people in multiple languages and character sets....]

10. HEADER INFORMATION

• The new reporting arrangements will be entirely by email. The days of observers submitting observations on a handwritten form are over. (ILOC advises that they rarely receive hand-written reports.) Consequently the field for the postal address of the representative has been removed. Similarly the field for indicating where the observations have been reported has been removed. However a new field has been added for free-text comments about the report as a whole. This enables you to provide comments that will assist the coordinator in dealing with your report. By being included as part of the report, the comments will be available when the report is being processed. [In contrast, comments in the email body may get separated from the report when it is being processed.]

TRANSITIONAL ISSUES

• With the new reporting arrangements, we have maintained the capability to read occultation reports written in the ILOC format. However we urge all observes to move to the new report format in the very near future
• If you have unreported observations, please report them to IOTA under the new arrangements (using either the ILOC format, or the new format - Occult, LunarReport, and LOW can read a report in the ILOC format and write it in the new format). This will help make the transition from ILOC to IOTA occur in the shortest possible time. [Observers in Europe or Japan should hold on to their unreported observations until they are advised of the reporting arrangements for those regions.]

Dave Herald
Canberra, Australia
August 2008

Three items to add to my previous emails about the new process for reporting lunar occultations.

1. Grazing occultations. The members of a graze expedition should continue to report their results to the person who organised the graze (as has been done for the last 40 years). That person will then send the combined observations to Mitsuru Soma. Individual observers should not send their observations direct to Mitsuru.

2. Reporting frequency. At this stage we are working on the basis of observers reporting their observations on a monthly basis, and aim to have a monthly update to the publicly available file of current observations. But if you make a lot of observations over a couple of nights, you can send your report at that time. Graze reports should be sent to Mitsuru as soon as all observations have been collected.

3. Please do not send your report to more than one person. The process for archiving the observations involves merging the reports gathered by the different coordinators into a single file. If you report your observations to different coordinators, they will create duplicate observations in the merged file - and someone will have to go through and delete the duplicates. [That is a task that no-one wants to do!]

Dave Herald
Canberra, Australia

For Users of Occult in Europe

This new reporting address has now been added to the list of reporting addresses that Occult (and the next version of LOW) access to obtain current reporting addresses.

To report observations from within Occult you need to have this new address included in Occult. There are two ways to do this:

• From the Maintenance tab, select the download page. In the first grouping, select the last item 'Reporting addresses for Lunar occultations'
• From the Lunar Observations editor, select the menu item 'Submit report... Download current Email reporting addresses'.

From the form that appears, select either 'Source IOTA-US' or 'Source RASNZ', and click Download. Upon successful download, the European reporting address will be available in Occult.

When you are ready to report some observations, select 'Europe - IOTA-ES' from the list of reporting addresses (and you will see the actual email address when this is selected). [NOTE: You will not see any reference to Europe in the list of reporting addresses until you do the above download.]

Finally, do not try to send reports to the European address before Sept 8. [If you send a report before the address is active, Occult will 'appear' to validly send the observation report. However you can expect a 'Mail System error' from your ISP, reporting an invalid address.]