NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Antoine Couëtte
Date: 2017 Sep 20, 07:55 -0700
Dear Greg,
Hello to you and thank you very much.
Actually the clocktime I could read in the cockpit was 02:51 (integer minute), and to minimize error I earlier published UT = 02:51:30
So the occulted Body was Regulus. The other 2 earlier unknown ones were therefore : Mercury (brighter and lower) and YES ! Mars, I agree.
Surprising that this specific occultation has not been publihsed here : http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/bstar.htm , while this documents list 11 other occulations of Regulus in 2017 ( Jan 15th, Feb 11 th, 10 March, 07 April, 04 May, 31 May, 27 Jun, 25 Jul, 15 Oct, 11 Nov and 08 Dec ).
How come they have not published occultations for [Aug and] September ? Maybe because even on September 18th Regulus was still quite close from the Sun (and YES, Regulus was VERY faint when seen from the cockpit at 41,000 ft) ? Hence from the ground with the atmosphre thickness it might have been almost invisible .... Any other explanation ? Frank ??
Best Friendly Regards,
Antoine