Monday 18 February 2019

path of totality

Via Space Weather, we learn that for some—in the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, will be blotted out during the night of 18 February through the early morning hours, when it is occulted by an asteroid with the designation (4388) Jรผrgenstock with its shadow moving upon the Earth.
It is strange to think such alignments of stars much greater than our own (dimmed by something far punier) happen all the time and hopefully garner some notice.  Discovered in 1964, the asteroid is named after the German-Venezuelan astronomer Jürgen Stock (*1923 – †2004)—not to be confused with the incumbent Secretary General of INTERPOL—who made significant contributions to the field of stellar photography, spectral analysis and classification as well as placing observatories in locations to maximise their abilities to study the Universe.