NavList:

Alex, you wrote:
"Meanwhile I found the following table of the times of this occultation for all US cities:
www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/0617venus.htm"

That certainly is a worthwhile website, and it used to be the go to website for occultations. But it was created and left in a mediocre state about 25-30 years ago, in the early days of the internet. It's another symptom of the steep decline of backyard astronomy that has occurred as the stars have disappeared in the overwhelming glow of light pollution. 

You specifically mentioned that it has data for "all US cities". This is where the quality issues of this web app really show up. It has data for "some" cities and also for some locations that are named after cities but don't really match up to the cities. It appears that the original database consisted of a list of airports, and many of the lat/lon locations correspond to airports on the outer fringe of well-known cities. In addition there are some interesting errors. See how many you can find in the maps below, which I generated a few minutes ago from the list on that website. In the New York area map, notice that there is no pin for New York City. Also, can you spot any problem with New Haven, Connecticut?

If any of you would like to explore this location database further, I'm including below a KML file for the cities listed for this Venus occultation. If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, just download that KML file and double-click to launch. 

The issues I'm pointing out here are weaknesses in the web app and its underlying components at the interface level, but the actual occultation predictions should generally be high quality if you can determine what location is actually being used. Just be alert to the problems, and I strongly suggest installing Stellarium, at least for comparisons. You can directly simulate the whole event for your exact location.

Frank Reed

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