[ASA] Kallichore occultation - 18 March 2026 - 22:35 - Crossing NSW

Wed Feb 18 10:40:27 AEDT 2026

Hi everyone,

Just in case any of you is interested on this, or if you know someone who might help in the amateur astronomy community, please let me share the email that I sent yesterday to amateur astronomy associations and observatories in NSW about participating in an proAM (Professional-Amateur) astronomy project aiming to observe a very rare occultation of a star by Kallichore, a dwarf satellite around Jupiter, on the night of 18 March 2026, 22:35pm.

Please, do not hesitate to share this email with anybody interested.

Although MQ Observatory is out of the current expected shadow path, we will join the campaign just in case, as the predicted border is only  ~20-30 km away from us.

Thanks,

All the best,

Ángel R.

A/Prof Ángel R. López-Sánchez
Astrophysicist and Science Communicator

School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/aKlICk81N9tXE9Xq8u2flIGNxWh?domain=mq.edu.au> | Level 5, Room 539, 12 Wally’s Walk |
Faculty of Science and Engineering<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/-zhtClx1NjiPrxPz0T9hgIzw3R5?domain=mq.edu.au> | Macquarie University<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/XwCiCmO5gluPxzPRBTBipIR6RuY?domain=mq.edu.au> | Sydney, Australia |
Macquarie Observatory Academic Lead  | MQ’s Night Sky Discovery<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/8bOYCnx1jni3Ev36AIZsLIJ9ytL?domain=mq.edu.au> |
President | Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific (SRAP) | https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ypDhCoV1kpfPnEPKjTOt1IpvplF?domain=srap-ieap.org |
Web & Blog: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ydplCp81lrtO2mOx1T2ukIGIb1D?domain=angelrls.com<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/hn28Cq71mwfkQZk7KTqCnIEX8SJ?domain=angelrls.wordpress.com> (English) | https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/aQiOCr81nytnqEnDPsQF2I4AAYk?domain=universorayado.naukas.com (Spanish) |

Dear all,

I think many of you know me, just in case, I’m Ángel López-Sánchez, Spanish-Australian astronomer working at Macquarie University, currently also being the “MQ Observatory Academic Lead”. Among the (perhaps too many) things I try to do for astronomy research, one of my favourite topics is motivating amateur astronomers to participate in ProAm (Professional - Amateur) research projects (e.g., I was the Chair of the ProAm Commission of the Astronomical Society of Spain between 2016 and 2020).

Today I’m contacting you because there is a unique opportunity for NSW astronomers to participate in a quite interesting ProAm research project.

I’ve been approached by a research team in Spain (a really good one, José Luis Ortiz is well-known for the controversy over the discovery of Haumea , see https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/1XJDCvl1rKiL9xLypuwHJIQcufX?domain=en.wikipedia.org) regarding a very rare occultation of a star by Kallichore, a dwarf satellite around Jupiter, on the night of 18 March 2026, 22:35pm, and the very narrow shadow crosses NSW (see maps, includes Dubbo, Mudgee, Gosford and Woy Woy) and they are asking help of amateur astronomers to try to get some data.

The research team has asked me to please contact as many amateur astronomers / amateur associations / observatories in NSW as possible to try to get observers of this rare occultation, as it could be recorded with telescopes as small as 20cm.

Please, follow the document attached with all the detailed information.

Because of procedures, all participants should register their interest in the portal

https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/JdPmCwV1vMfVjKVRJilIqIJo4ty?domain=opop.obspm.fr

where you can find all the details and updates regarding the exact occultation path (just for your reference, a week ago the prediction of the occultation was crossing Siding Spring Observatory and exited land between Newcastle and Taree).

The online map https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VSE5CxngwOfRlkRQnuxSmIyKalz?domain=opop.obspm.fr  is generated from the Occultation Portal prediction and should be used as the reference for coordination.

Please, if you need more information, do not hesitate to contact the research team:

José-Luis Ortiz (PI): ortiz at iaa.es
Juan Luis Rizos: jlrizos at iaa.es
Yücel Kılıç: ykilic at iaa.es

Please, also share this email  with anybody interested.

Thanks,

Cheers,

Ángel R.

A/Prof Ángel R. López-Sánchez
Astrophysicist and Science Communicator

School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/aKlICk81N9tXE9Xq8u2flIGNxWh?domain=mq.edu.au> | Level 5, Room 539, 12 Wally’s Walk |
Faculty of Science and Engineering<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/-zhtClx1NjiPrxPz0T9hgIzw3R5?domain=mq.edu.au> | Macquarie University<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/XwCiCmO5gluPxzPRBTBipIR6RuY?domain=mq.edu.au/> | Sydney, Australia |
Macquarie Observatory Academic Lead  | MQ’s Night Sky Discovery<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/8bOYCnx1jni3Ev36AIZsLIJ9ytL?domain=mq.edu.au> |
President | Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific (SRAP) | https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ypDhCoV1kpfPnEPKjTOt1IpvplF?domain=srap-ieap.org<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ypDhCoV1kpfPnEPKjTOt1IpvplF?domain=srap-ieap.org/> |
Web & Blog: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ydplCp81lrtO2mOx1T2ukIGIb1D?domain=angelrls.com<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/hn28Cq71mwfkQZk7KTqCnIEX8SJ?domain=angelrls.wordpress.com/> (English) | https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/aQiOCr81nytnqEnDPsQF2I4AAYk?domain=universorayado.naukas.com<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/aQiOCr81nytnqEnDPsQF2I4AAYk?domain=universorayado.naukas.com/> (Spanish) |

https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/EMejCyojxQT21Z2yqUgTxIxegwZ?domain=ausprd01.prod.outlook.com]
https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/8_JACzvkyVCw16wmQcxUXI9A3Fo?domain=ausprd01.prod.outlook.com]
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