mountaintop

Despite a spring blizzard, we made it to our 28 inch f/21 RC telescope at Mt.Evans Observatory in Colorado (14,148 ft elev) and visually inspected epsilon, zeta and eta at low airmass mid-day Tues 6/15/2010.  Brian K and I agreed that eps and zeta were of comparable brightness, after several iterations.  I think eps is slightly fainter than zeta when color differences are taken into account, but that gets subjective under bright sky conditions.  Thus, we report no indication that epsilon Aur is brighter than zeta Aur at this time.  Hence, no evidence for mid-eclipse brightening at this time, but further reports to follow.

With mid-eclipse forecast for early August 2010 and mid-eclipse brightening supposedly lasting +/- 30 to 45 days around that point, we should either begin to see evidence for it soon, or redefine the mid-eclipse light curve.Read more