Contributions of 'citizen science' to occultation astronomy.

The modern term 'citizen science' describes a very old tradition in the natural sciences. Until the specialization of the sciences at the end of the eighteenth century, the emergence of technical universities and the formation of a modern scientific enterprise, citizen science was the norm. Since the 1960s, amateur astronomers have increasingly observed stellar occultations, first by the Moon and in the last three decades by main belt asteroids and outer solar system bodies.