Authors

J. Harrington;R. G. French

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Astrophys. J.

Keywords

atmospheric effects; infrared: planetary systems; occultations; planets; and satellites: individual (Saturn); techniques: image processing; techniques: photometric; CATALOG; Astronomy & Astrophysics

Abstract

On 1998 November 14, Saturn and its rings occulted the star GSC 0622-00345. We observed atmospheric immersion with NSFCAM at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Immersion occurred at 55 degrees.5 S planetocentric latitude. A 2.3 mu m, CH(4)-band filter suppressed reflected sunlight. Atmospheric emersion and ring data were not successfully obtained. We describe our observation, light curve production, and timing techniques, including improvements in aperture positioning, removal of telluric scintillation effects, and timing. Many of these techniques are known within the occultation community, but have not been described in the reviewed literature. We present a light curve whose signal-to-noise ratio per scale height is 267, among the best ground-based signals yet achieved, despite a disadvantage of up to 8 mag in the stellar flux compared to prior work.

Journal Title

Astrophysical Journal

Volume

716

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

398

Last Page

403

WOS Identifier

WOS:000277960000028

ISSN

0004-637X

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