Mark Your Calendars - LCROSS Lunar Impactor Plume to be Visible from Earth
The LCROSS impact into the Cabeus crater near the south lunar pole is scheduled for 4:30 a.m. PDT (7:30 a.m. EDT, 11:30 UTC) on Friday, October 9, 2009. NASA scientists estimate that the Centaur impact debris plume should be in view several seconds after it hits the Moon and will peak in brightness at about 30 to 100 seconds after impact. In the US, the best viewing of the impact plume will be from west of the Mississippi River with telescopes that are larger than 10 inches in diameter.
Comments:
I'm 40 miles east of Washington, and the sun will be 2 degrees up at impact, but I'm gonna try anyway using:<br>An ETX OTA on a GEM, collimated as perfectly as I can,<br>a dewshield extends 18 inches forward of the OTA,<br>I'm using a B&W modified TouCam (ICX-098BL)<br>with a Baader IR pass (670nm) filter,<br>and a 2X Barlow,<br>and I may use a polarizer to reduce atmospheric scatter.<br>Tested it last night and got excellent hi-res views of the predicted impact site.<br>I agree my chances are slim, but I got Shoemaker-Levy with a 2.7 inch Unitron and a Watec security camera, and that was (and still) thrills me !<br>Does anyone know if there will be any real time updates on amateur radio ? My observing site won't have internet access.<br>Wish me luck, and good luck to all you lucky enough to be east of the Mississippi !<br>Mike
