RECON is pleased to announce several positive detections of Kuiper Belt Object 2007 UK126 during last month’s occultation campaign on 15 November, 2014. Wet, cloudy weather challenged teams in the northern part of the pilot network, but skies were generally clear from Reno southward.

We are currently analyzing data from all sites, but it is clear that at least two RECON sites and one additional IOTA member detected the occultation.

This represents a significant accomplishment for the pilot RECON network, given that the event involved a faint star (mag 15.8) in a moonlit sky (42% illumination at separation of 85 degrees). It also is a great indication of things to come as we expand the network to over four times its current size in the coming year.

Great job, pilot RECON teams!!!

The pilot RECON network is set for our second occultation event involving a Kuiper Belt Object, 2007 UK126.  The maps below shows sites that have signed up on Occult Watcher to participate in tonight’s event, including 13 RECON sites and roughly a dozen additional IOTA observers across the nation.

Map shows telescope sites signed up on Occult Watcher to observe 2007 UK126

The pilot RECON network involves telescopes stretching from Tulelake, California to Tonpah, Nevada.

Pilot RECON network from Tulelake to Tonopah

By May, 2015, RECON will extend down to the US border with Mexico and up to the Canadian border, making the full network a powerful array for observing future KBO occultations. Amateur astronomers from across North America will be invited to join in these campaign events.

Current weather conditions may challenge several RECON sites tonight, especially in the northern part of the network, but our team members are all geared up and ready to get whatever data they can during tonight’s event window from 2:10-2:30AM!

Community teams in the pilot RECON network are preparing for our first KBO occultation event since Pluto.  Early Saturday morning, November 15, from 2:10-2:30AM Pacific Time, our community teams will be out watching for 2007 UK126 to occult the star shown below.  The image was taken by Bill Gimple in Greenville, California in preparation for the Saturday morning event.

Image of star field for 2007 UK126 taken by Bill Gimple in Greenville

RECON was featured this past weekend in the blog SMALL STEPS TO SPACE:

Recon’s student space explorers will peer into the Solar System’s far frontier

Interested communities located in the vicinity the proposed RECON network path (shown on the map below) are asked to complete a COMMUNITY TEAM INTEREST FORM. We will use the information provided on this form in our efforts to involve as many communities as possible to maximize both the educational and scientific impacts of this project. For all communities north of Lake Havasu, Arizona, we ask that the community interest form be completed by Wednesday, November 12.

View Proposed RECON Expansion in a larger map

Tonight, several of our pilot RECON teams will be participating in a practice occultation event involving main belt asteroid (225) Henrietta.  The predicted shadow path has a very high probability of passing directly over the pilot RECON network.

Predicted shadow path of (225) Henrietta

In September, the National Science Foundation awarded a five-year grant to extend the RECON citizen science astronomy network across the entire western United States! During the months of October and November, RECON project leaders Marc Buie and John Keller will be traveling on four week-long road trips to visit over 30 targeted communities north and south of the pilot RECON network.

Our first trip was the week of October 6-10.  Over the course of the week, we met with over 20 teachers and administrators from twelve schools and community college campuses in Nevada, Arizona, and California:

• Beatty High School
• Indian Springs High School
• Green Valley High School in Henderson
• Foothill High School in Henderson
• Boulder City High School
• Mt. Tipton School in Dolan Springs
• Mohave High School in Bullhead City
• River Valley High School in Mohave Valley
• Laughlin Junior/Senior High School
• Needles High School
• Mohave Community College – Bullhead City
• Mohave Community College – Lake Havasu

At Beatty High School, Boulder City High School, and Needles High School, we also had the privilege of presenting the project to a total of approximately 100 students. Throughout our visits and presentations, we were most impressed by the enthusiasm for the project expressed by the teachers, administrators, and students we met.

We also had the pleasure of presenting to roughly 30 amateur astronomers during three local astronomy club meetings:

• Las Vegas Astronomical Society
• High Desert Astronomy Club
• Lake Havasu Astronomy Club

Below are some quick snapshots from this first of four recruitment trips.  Stay tuned for updates from our second road trip through Central Washington October 20-24!

Hoover Dam from the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

Along Route 66 in Kingman

Double rainbow during return from Bullhead City to Kingman

Old Trails Bridge outside of Needles, California

Looking back over Searchlight, Nevada and Dolan Springs, Arizona during flight home

The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year grant to expand RECON to include over 40 telescope sites stretching across the entire western United States. Watch a three-minute Science360 video produced earlier this year to learn more about the RECON project.

As part of recruitment efforts during Fall 2014, project leaders Marc Buie and John Keller will visit teachers and community members in and around the cities and towns highlighted in blue on the interactive map below.

View RECON – Research and Education Cooperative Occultation Network in a larger map

Note that the 14 communities highlighted in green and yellow have been actively participating in the pilot RECON network since Spring 2013.

After new RECON teams have been selected, telescope and camera equipment will be shipped to community. During Spring 2015, representatives from new and veteran RECON teams will participate in training workshops — one in a location south of Las Vegas and the second in the Tri-Cities region of Washington.

By April 2015, the full RECON network of over 40 communities will be operational, and the project will begin to carry out network campaigns to measure occultations of Kuiper Belt Objects and other trans-Neptunian Objects.

If you are interested in learning more about the RECON Project and ways you can participate, please complete our RECON Interest Survey. Alternatively, if you know of any community members in or around our target communities, feel free to help us get in touch by completing the RECON Referral Survey.

Carson High School teacher Jim Bean, mentor Red Sumner, and students Shelby and Lake will be helping Marc Buie on a three day observing run at Kitt Peak National Observatory this week.  They will be using the 4-meter telescope to acquire fields of KBOs to help us refine predictions for future KBO occultation events. The group met up with Marc at the airport in Phoenix this evening and they are currently headed up to the observatory located 56 miles southwest of Tucson Arizona.

The team plans provide updates here on the tnorecon.net blog.  We encourage you to interact with Shelby, Lake, Jim, Red, and Marc by replying with questions and comments throughout the week. Also, we will be hosting a google+ hangout from the mountain on Wednesday from 3:15-4:15 PM Pacific Time. Send your google+ id to recon@calpoly.edu  by noon that day if you would like to be invited to join the hangout.