Acknowledgement, extras and additional offline content
The organizational committee of the Second Trans-Tasman Symposium on Occultations would like to thank to all people that have provided video records and materials and have contributed for the success of this event:
André Knöfel, Dave Gault, Dave Herald, Gabi & Detlef Koschny, George Smith, Graham Blow, Hans Robert Schäfer, Hristo Pavlov, K. Nagel, Kazuhisa Miyashita, Kunio Kenmotsu, Michael Parl, Oliver Klös, Rodney Moulder, Stefan Messer, Stephen Russell, Tony George and Wolfgang Rothe
Please make sure to have a look at all available videos from the Occultation Data and check the comments from their authors where available. Feel free to use them for practicing your skills with LiMovie and Audacity.
Additionally there are a couple of extras on the DVD including software:
OccultWatcher 3.0
IMPORTANT: If you already have an older version of OccultWatcher on your computer then use the autoupdate functionality to update to the latest version and do not install the version included in this DVD. Only install the version on this DVD if you don't have OccultWatcher installed on your computer yet.
The new version 3.0 of OccultWatcher can now help you better organize your observation planning with the introduction of "My Events", can draw occultation star chars using C2A and can speak 8 languages! It has many usability improvements as well. At the moment of writing this manual there are more than 350 registered users that can announce their stations and more than 1000 known installations around the world. Don't just watch from aside, install OccultWatcher and become a part of the global community of the occultation observers around the world. Tell everyone which events you are planning to observe and where from so they can get a better coverage across the path.
C2A
C2A is free planetarium software developed by Philippe Deverchère in France which supports a whole lot of star catalogs including: SAO, Guide Star, Hipparcos, Tycho-2, USNO-SA1.0, USNO-A2.0, USNO-B1.0, UCAC1, UCAC2 and NOMAD. Only SAO is provided with the program distribution because of a size limit. C2A has integration with OccultWatcher and can plot occultation maps for occultations involving stars from all catalogs currently supported by Occult: Tycho-2, UCAC2, Hipparcos and even NOMAD. Tycho-2 and Hipparcos catalogs can be downloaded from the program web site while UCAC2 can be "built" from the original catalog which is not supplied. NOMAD is also not supplied. C2A supports both NOMAD and the NOMAD-Short (distribution for Occult v4 by Dave Herald).
Virtual Dub
Virtual Dub is software that can be used to process AVI files, for example to make them smaller in size by cutting parts of them and/or compressing them. The program has many other features.
WinDV
This is a program by Petr Mourek in the Czech Republic that captures AVI video to a computer via a Firewire interface. The web site of this tool is http://windv.mourek.cz
BeeperSync
This is a program that allows you to synchronise your beeper box to UTC (for visual observations) only from the internet without the need of a GPS. The program should be used on a good broadband internet connection and a decent computer configurations only. For more information check http://www.hristopavlov.net/BeeperSync. The program requires .NET Framework 2.0. If you are already running Occult v4 or OccultWatcher you have .NET installed otherwise install it from here.
Video Codecs
There are few non standard video codecs included. Instructions how to install some of them are available here.
Finally make sure you enjoy the beautiful images from the flyby of the Near-Earth Object (NEO) called 2007 TU24 taken by Michael Parl on 29 Jan 2008
AND
The amazing grazing asteroidal occultation observed by Oliver Klös and Stefan Messer on 17 Sep 2002
THE END
This manual and the DVD content was prepared and put togather by Hristo Pavlov, Sydney, Australia.
