Asteroids – a renegade band of rocks circling the sun in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter. They may hold significant keys to knowledge of the origin of the universe, so scientists have a keen interest in studying them.

What if scientists wanted to lean about the size and shape of a particular asteroid? It is not as simple as pointing a telescope and zooming in. In fact, the process is relatively simple, but it takes a monumental effort by dozens, event hundreds of volunteers.

A group known as the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) steps in to provide valuable data for scientists studying asteroids. Ted Blank of Fountain Hills is an IOTA member, and he explains it this way.

“It turns out that on occasion one of those millions of asteroids will happen to pass in front of one of the billions of stars in the sky, causing the light from the star to be interrupted for a time,” Blank said. “Recording this event on video through a telescope while making careful note of the times at which the light from the star disappears and reappears allows [scientists] to calculate the diameter of the asteroid.

“As you can imagine, this is much cheaper than sending spacecraft out to the asteroid belt. Only small telescopes are required so amateurs can easily participate.”

You do have to be in just the right place at just the right time to see one of these events, according to Blank.

“The IOTA has put in place a prediction service that lets us know well in advance where and when to go to have the best chance to observe an event,” he said. “One can think of the asteroid as casting a ‘shadow’ on Earth of about the size and shape of the actual asteroid.”

Blank said the multiple observers watching the same event from different locations can get measurements across several parts of the asteroid, allowing a rough “picture” of its shape to be constructed. The more observers that provide data, the better the picture can be constructed of the asteroid.

Closet scientist

“Learning about the sky has been very enjoyable, but as a ‘closet scientist,’ I was really excited when I first heard that an amateur could make a real contribution to solar system science by recording something called an asteroid occultation,” Blank said.

He has built an observatory in his backyard to accommodate his observations in conjunction with the IOTA

“I built my observatory to be able to do some personal observing and photography in the evenings without having to set up and align my telescope each time,” Blank said. “I also have it set up for video recording of any asteroid occultation that happens to be visible from our area.”

There are several other local occultation observers in places like Cave Creek, Scottsdale, Phoenix and Florence who coordinate their efforts to get the maximum possible coverage.

“We also go mobile when appropriate to try to capture events down near Tucson or as far north as southern Utah,” Blank said.

Blank is a software evaluator by profession, splitting seasons between Fountain Hills and New Hampshire.

“Growing up I followed the Apollo missions closely,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in the stars as well as space exploration, but I didn’t join an astronomy club (the New Hampshire Astronomical Society) until 2007.

“The club members helped me better understand the sky, how the constellations change with the seasons, how stars are born, age and die, and how interesting examples of stars at various stages of their life cycles can be found all over the sky.”

Stellar outreach

Blank began to volunteer with the educational outreach side of the club giving talks at local schools and libraries on various subjects related to astronomy and space exploration.

“I brought my telescope to many club outreach events to share the views with the public,” Blank said. “I also began to do ‘sidewalk astronomy’ where we set up telescopes on urban sidewalks to encourage people, especially young people, to see whatever we can show them – Saturn’s rings, Jupiter and its moons, craters on the Moon, Venus in crescent phase, there are lots of interesting objects visible even from brightly-lit locations.

“Eventually I joined the NASA Solar System Ambassador volunteer program which has a website where schools and community organizations can request a free talk on subjects related to space exploration.”

When he first bought his home here in Fountain Hills Blank teamed with other locals interested in astronomy. He joined Bob Wilson and Dr. Craig Gimbel to start the Fountain Hills Astronomy Club, which supports the monthly library sky watch events with telescopes for the public (Website: fhastronomy.org).

Blank, Wilson and others in and out of the Astronomy Club are spreading their enthusiasm about the dark skies in Fountain Hills as a great place to observe the universe. They hope to achieve an “dark sky” designation for the community from the International Dark Skies Association.

The community also has a longstanding connection to asteroid research. From 1999 until his passing in 2009, Fountain Hills resident Dr. Charles Juels (a retired Scottsdale therapist) became one of the most prolific discoverers of asteroids in history. Using his backyard telescope, he discovered and named over 475 asteroids, including number 20898 which he named “Fountain Hills.”