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On Father鈥檚 Day, you can send your dad a card, or take him out to a nice steak dinner. But if you really want to do something special for him, spending a memorable day together is a gift that鈥檚 hard to beat!

Coming up with the perfect day can be a hard task. But when you know your father loves astronomy, it鈥檚 actually pretty easy! For Paul Dalba, the Asteroid Occultation Lead at Unistellar,听chasing down an听听with his dad, Anthony Dalba, was a no-brainer.

鈥淗e was never interested in astronomy until I studied it in school, but now he loves it,鈥� the younger Dalba says. So for his first visit home to St. Louis, Missouri in more than three years, Paul decided to take his dad out asteroid hunting.

鈥淧rior to looking after the Polymele asteroid in March 2022, I had not seen my dad in person since 2019,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o it was a bit of a reunion.鈥�

Anthony Dalba and Paul Dalba

Luckily, on March 26, Paul鈥檚 visit coincided with the passage in front of a star, an event called an occultation, of听, an asteroid that鈥檚 a target for听. The occultation鈥檚 path went through Rolla, Missouri, about 90 miles away, and the father-son duo packed up two eVscopes to go see it.

After scouting around in the afternoon for the best spots to make their observations,听Paul helped his dad set up his eQuinox for the first time, near to the line of centrality for the occultation. Then, as the occultation neared, he raced to another spot ten minutes away to make his own observation.

Though it was Anthony鈥檚 first time using an eVscope, both he and Paul made clear observations of Polymele as it passed in front of a distant star, an event that lasted about three-fourths of a second. Both father and son were able to capture light curves from the event,听passing along important Citizen Astronomer data about Polymele鈥檚 shape and orbit to NASA scientists with the Lucy mission.

With one successful observing trip in the books, we hope it鈥檚 the first of many collaborations between this father-son observing team. Happy Father鈥檚 Day!

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