George's Astronomical Observations

Unconfirmed Lunar Impacts and cosmic rays

Home Observers' Clear Sky Clocks GOES Weather EAST Apparent disk of the moon

Lunar Impact telescope setup... Description of a lunar impact imaging run

Download LunarScan 1.3 by Pete Gural (784 Kb Zip file) - Use this to process your video for impact candidates.

April 12, 2008 Cosmic Ray Sampler I started testing my new Watec H2 Ult. This image is comprised of 4 cosmic ray hits from 4 different events, zoomed in 300 percent.	Larger image

Unconfirmed event Feb 21, 2008, 02:23:47UT Larger Image	February 20, 2008 Lunar Eclipse (Feb 21, 02:23:47.4UT) Unconfirmed Impact Candidate from Feb 20 Lunar Eclipse. The event lasted both video fields in the same video frame and was very faint.

Unconfirmed Lunar Impact Candidate from full Lunar Eclipse February 20, 2008 (Feb 21, 03:19:57.4UT). The event lasted 3 video fields.	Unconfirmed Lunar Impact Feb 21, 2008, 03:19:57UT Animated GIF Larger Image

Larger Image	December 18, 2007 Unconfirmed Lunar impact candidates 00:38:31 Animated GIF 852Kb 00:38:31 2 frames, 3 fields, bright 02:13:47 1 1 frame, 2 fields, suspect cosmic ray due to antialiasing of even video field

December 15, 2007 00:45:52UT Unconfirmed Lunar impact candidate I was shooting sucker holes and LunarScan coughed up this event. Both Odd and Even video fields are about the same brightness. It looks sketchy at best and the conditions were really awful. Worth reporting though...	Larger Image

Unconfirmed 2007 Orionid impact candidates

Orionids - 10/20/2007
23:17:03UT #a21 - duration = 4 video fields Image Animated GIF 694Kb
23:23:48UT #b4  duration = 2 video fields, very dim Image
23:43:14UT #d3  duration = 3 video fields Image Animated GIF 708Kb

Orionids - 10/21/2007
00:47:53UT #e58 duration = 4 video fields Image Animated GIF 855Kb
01:03:05UT #f37 duration = 2 video fields Image
02:52:46UT #h(2) duration = 2 video fields Image
03:41:23UT #i(2) one video field only
03:48:12UT #i3 duration = 2 video fields Image

September 18, 2007 Cosmic Ray? 23:55:36.804 - single bright frame; both odd and even fields show this spot. However, it appears the spot has anti-aliasing artifacts in the odd field which do occur sometimes with cosmic rays events. That artifacting is not found on any of the Orionid candidates above.

Odd field Even field Click for larger image
Image of suspected Cosmic Ray hit

Unconfirmed Lunar Impact Candidate April 23, 2007 01:17:35UT - possibly a Lyrid; Imaged with an 8" Celestron and StellaCam II at prime focus. Unfortunately, this one can not be confirmed as it fell outside the FOV on MSFC's equipment.	Click for larger image Animation

NASA - Lunar Impact Monitoring Monitoring the moon for meteoroid impacts will help determine the hazardous they will present to astronauts during prolonged stays on the lunar surface.

Download LunarScan 1.3 by Pete Gural 784 Kb Zip file - Use this to process your lunar impact video.

Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)

In 2009, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will guide a booster into an orbit that will smash it into a permanently shadowed crater on either the north or south pole of the moon. Shortly after, the shepherding craft will crash in to the same spot after descending through the debris plume. The plume should be visible above the limb according to the experts, using small and medium telescopes.

Home