21 December 2003

Observing Location	Boardwalk at Beach 83 St in the Rockaways
Atmospheric Conditions	It was cold, probably in the 20s. There wasn't much wind. The air was clear and there wasn't much in the way of clouds in the area of the moon.
Observing Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Dobsonian - Markus
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Markus Finkemeier

Target	Dschubba, δ Scorpii
Time	21Dec03; 06:10 EST
Category	grazing occultation
Comments	This is the most impressive astronomical event I have observed to date. Dschubba is a magnitude 2.34 star in the center of the head of Scorpius. Its Arabic name is Al-Jabhah, meaning "The Forehead." It was easily visible near the dark limb of the waning, 27 day 10 hour moon. As it rose in the early morning sky the moon appeared as a thin crescent, being only 5.9% illuminated. When we first arrived it looked like the event would be an occultation but as the time grew close the star moved up to the Moon's limb and appeared to be pushed along by it before it disappeared at around the 4:00 position. It flashed back into view four to six times before reappearing and moving away from the Moon at about the 2:30 position. I was recording the event on my MP3 player but when it was all over nothing was there. I also noticed a time discrepancy of over five minutes between my GPS receiver and my Palm PDA. The PDA had the correct time.