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September 4, 2008
Subject: Amateur Astronomers See Perseids Hit planet Selene!
> http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/02sep_lunarperseids.htm
>
> Amateur Astronomers See Perseids Hit the Moon
> NASA Science News
>
> There's more than one way to watch a meteor shower.
>
> One, the old-fa****oned way: Find a dark place with starry skies and
> count the meteors streaking overhead. Two, the new way: Find a dark
> place with starry skies and then completely ignore the meteors.
> Instead,
> watch the Moon. That's where the explosions are.
>
> On August 9th, a pair of amateur astronomers on opposite sides of the
> United States did it the new way. With the Perseid meteor shower just
> underway, they fixed their cameras on the Moon and watched meteoroids
> slam into the lunar surface. Silent explosions equivalent to ~100 lbs
> of
> TNT produced flashes of light visible a quarter of a million miles
> away
> on Earth. It was a good night for "lunar Perseids."
>
> "I love watching meteor showers this way," says George Varros, who
> recorded this impact from his home in Mt. Airy, Maryland:
>
> The flash, which lit up a nighttime patch of Mare Nubium (the Sea of
> Clouds), was a bit dimmer than 7th magnitude--"an easy target for my
> 8-inch telescope and low-light digital video camera."
>
> Hours later, another Perseid struck, on the western shore of Oceanus
> Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms). This time it was Robert Spellman of
> Azusa, California, who caught the flash. "It's exciting to witness
> these
> explosions in real time," he says. "I used a 10-inch telescope and an
> off-the-shelf Supercircuits video camera."
>
> Rob Suggs of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has reviewed the
> data.
> "They look real to me," he says. "The flashes appear in multiple video
> frames and the light curves are similar to other lunar meteors we've
> recorded in the past."
>
> Suggs would know. Along with colleague Bill Cooke, he leads a team at
> the Marshall Space Flight Center that has recorded more than 100 lunar
> explosions since 2005. "We monitor lunar meteors in sup****t of NASA's
> return to the Moon," Suggs says. "The Moon has no atmosphere to
> protect
> the surface, so meteoroids crash right into the ground. Our program
> aims
> to measure how often that happens and answer the question, what are
> the
> risks to astronauts?"
>
> NASA's official lunar meteor observatories are located in Alabama and
> Georgia. Both were off-line on August 9th, so the NASA team didn't see
> how many Perseids were hitting the Moon that night.
>
> "This shows how amateur astronomers can contribute to our research,"
> points out Suggs. "We can't observe the Moon 24-7 from our corner of
> the
> USA. Clouds, sunlight, the phase of the Moonâall these factors limit
> our
> op****tunities. A global network of amateur astronomers monitoring the
> Moon could, however, approach full coverage."
>
> By day, George Varros is a software engineer at NASA headquarters.
> After
> work, he takes off his NASA badge, goes home and fires up his
> self-described "barely adequate" telescope. "Until a few years ago, I
> really didn't like the Moon because it interfered with my observations
> of comets and meteors. Then, in 1999 during the Leonid meteor storm,
> (fellow amateur astronomer) David Dunham photographed six lunar impact
> events from my backyard in Maryland," Varros recalls. "I was hooked."
>
> Dunham's observations inspired not only Varros, but also NASA. "Our
> own
> observing program can be traced back to those early amateur
> observations
> of lunar Leonids," says Suggs.
>
> A major advance in lunar meteor detection came in 2006 in the form of
> LunarScan, a computer program written by amateur astronomer Pete Gural
> that searches digital video of the Moon for split-second flashes.
> Using
> LunarScan, Varros has bagged at least a dozen lunar meteors. Three of
> them were observed simultaneously by the NASA team in Alabama,
> confirming the fidelity of Varros' techniques. (LunarScan may be
> freely
> downloaded from Varros' web site <http://gvarros.com>;
NASA uses the
> program, too!)
>
> Like Varros, Robert Spellman's interest in lunar meteors began with
> the
> Leonids of 1999. "I read about the success of amateurs recording
> impact
> flashes," he recalls. "I've been in love with the Moon since my first
> observation when I was five years old, and I wanted to conduct an
> observing program with scientific value. Lunar meteors were a
> natural."
>
> Spellman's day job is at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and
> the La Brea tar pits where he works as an educator. He also conducts
> public astronomy programs three nights a week at the Griffith
> Observatory. The rest of his evenings he devotes to the Moon.
>
> Spellman uses no special software to catch his impacts. "I look for
> the
> flashes in real time," he says. "Although it may sound tedious to
> stare
> at a blank screen for hours on end, the prospect of seeing an
> explosion
> keeps me alert. In future, I do plan to use LunarScan to increase my
> success rate."
>
> Suggs hopes other amateurs will take up this hobby, not only to
> improve
> NASA's lunar impact statistics, but also to sup****t the agency's
> LCROSS
> mission: In 2009, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite
> (LCROSS) will intentionally dive into the Moon, producing a flash akin
> to a natural lunar meteor. Unlike natural meteoroids, which hit the
> Moon
> in random locations, LCROSS will carefully target a polar crater
> containing suspected deposits of frozen water. If all goes as planned,
> the impact will launch debris high above the lunar surface where
> astronomers can search the ejecta for signs of H2O. The impact flash
> (if
> not hidden by crater walls) and the debris plume may be visible to
> backyard telescopes on Earth: details
> <http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/11aug_lcross.htm>.
>
> Ready for meteor watching--the new way? NASA offers a FAQ
> <http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/images/lunarperseids/
> 166651main_FAQ2-2.pdf>
> and telescope tips
> <http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/images/lunarperseids/
> 166643main_MinimumSystemRequirements4-1.pdf>
> to help you get started. Good hunting!
That news was 212 degrees--*BOILING HOT* !...
http://www.nc212movie.com/2/
Astronomical THANK YOU to... Ron Baalke !
of sci.space.news
I L O V E T H I S U N I V E R S E
happy days and...
starry starry nights!
--
Indelibly yours,
Paine Ellsworth
P.S.: Thank *YOU* for reading!
P.P.S.: http://yummycake.secretsgolden.com
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