Abstract
There are over two million minor planets in the Solar System, which include the populations of asteroids, Kuiper Belt and trans-Neptunian objects, centaurs, and trojans, among others. These bodies frequently pass in front of stars, casting shadows across the surface of the Earth in events known as stellar occultations. The Occultation Group at the University of Virginia reports on the efforts to characterize through stellar occultations the astrometry, size, shape, albedo, and environment of over one hundred asteroids and other bodies. Coordinated campaigns have been conducted by the Occultation Group to observe the highest-priority targets, and we detail the organization and results from these efforts alongside the reports from nightly autonomous observations. Large campaigns have been organized for the asteroids (269) Justitia, (623) Chimaera, and (59980) Moza, and the group has been recruited for observations in support of NASA, ESA, and UAESA spacecraft missions. Software and physical infrastructure has been developed to support the Virginian Experiment for Studies of Transiting Asteroids (VESTA), an array of small (<1 m) telescopes in the greater Charlottesville area, including the production of a data reduction pipeline to automate the analysis of hundreds of gigabytes of data collected nightly. Documentation is provided for the operation of this software.
