TTOA have run annual meetings – The Trans-Tasman Symposia on Occultations (TTSO) – since 2006. These are open to members and visitors on a range of occultation topics including training and information sessions. Apart from the ‘COVID’ years, these have been physical in-person meetings with online streaming/sharing increasingly engaging involvement with international participants. Pages on TTSO’s from 2025 and prior can be reached through this page on the old website.
TTSO20 – The Twentieth Trans-Tasman Symposium on Occultations – 6 April 2026, Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia
The Trans-Tasman Occultation Alliance will hold the Twentieth Trans-Tasman Symposium on Occultations (TTSO20) on 6 April 2026. TTSO20 will be held in conjunction with NACAA XXXII in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia. Registration is now open at the NACAA website.
Anyone interested in making a presentation to TTSO20 is urged to make contact – director@occultations.org.nzÂ
See below for the Draft Program.
| UTC | AEST | NZST | Duration | Speaker | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 5 April 2026 | Mon 6 April 2026 | (min) | ||||
| 23:00 | 9:00 | 11:00 | 0:10 | S. Kerr | Welcome and Introduction | |
| 23:10 | 9:10 | 11:10 | 0:30 | S. Kerr | Round Up of TTOA Observing | Reviewing the results of observations by TTOA through 2025 with summary and statistics. Introduction to the new website. |
| 23:40 | 9:40 | 11:40 | 0:10 | M. Forbes | Equipment on Offer | An updated on equipment that TTOA have and is available for loan/sale. |
| 23:50 | 9:50 | 11:50 | 0:40 | D. Herald | Asteroidal Occultations – Global results | Stats, Issues and Results from 2025 |
| 0:30 | 10:30 | 12:30 | 0:30 | Morning Break | ||
| 1:00 | 11:00 | 13:00 | 0:30 | R. Brown | The Finnish astronomer Hugo Gylden | Gylden pioneered the foundations of present day orbital mechanics helping pave the way for the high accuracy asteroid predictions that occultation observers benefit from. He also has an asteroid named for him – (806) Gyldenia – which I had the good fortune to observe occulting two stars within an hour of each other. I will present the story of these observations also |
| 1:30 | 11:30 | 13:30 | 0:30 | D. Herald | Fresnel in Occult | An overview of the Fresnel diffraction analysis tool in Occult |
| 2:00 | 12:00 | 14:00 | 0:30 | M. Camilleri | Occultation Manager | A review of Michael’s recently launched plug in for SharpCap to automate occultation observing and reporting. |
| 2:30 | 12:30 | 14:30 | 1:00 | Lunch | ||
| 3:30 | 13:30 | 15:30 | 1:00 | M. Camilleri/S. Kerr | NTP Timebases Continued | Following on from the workshop at TTSO19, Michael will present on NTP time bases and recent developments on how to streamline them into occultation observing. |
| 4:30 | 14:30 | 16:30 | 0:30 | A. Wendelborn | Occultations in South Australia | An overview of recent occultation observing from South Australia, results, challenges and future activities. |
| 5:00 | 15:00 | 17:00 | 0:30 | Afternoon Break | ||
| 5:30 | 15:30 | 17:30 | 0:30 | S. Kerr | Upcoming occultations | A summary of interesting and scientifically valuable occultations for the next 12 months. |
| 6:00 | 16:00 | 18:00 | 0:10 | S. Kerr | Wrap Up |
How to Identify Asteroid Occultation Predictions in OccultWatcher Cloud using the Search Function – 8 November 2025 (Zoom)
On 8 November 2025, TTOA held a Zoom meeting focused on changes in OccultWatcher Cloud functionality that allow logged in users to generate personalized asteroid occultation predictions. The structure was quite informal but thanks to Hristo Pavlov and Dave Gault for the presentation and insights. This meeting was motivated by Dave Gault’s intention to discontinue the Trans-Tasman feed to OccultWatcher on account of the increased time effort involved in maintaining it. The meeting was recorded and is shared through You-Tube. Duration: 1:33:55