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LEONID DAILY NEWS: December 01, 2001 Impact on the Moon by D. Palmer (USA) IMPACTS ON THE MOON! Despite the young age of the Moon, numerous reports have come in that Moon impacts were readily visible this year. Two impacts have now been confirmed from multiple sites. A list of possible impacts is given below. More impacts may be recognized in the video records later. Leonid MAC participant Peter Gural has developed software to recognize such flashes from video records. The image above by David Palmer is perhaps the brightest impact flash on the Moon that was recorded on video records during this year's Leonid shower. The flash occurred at 00:18:58 UTC (Nov. 19) and lasted 1/10th sec. For the first time, the intensity was observed to fade with time. The Moon was only 3 degrees above the horizon for observer Tony Cook, who confirmed the impact. The same flash was recorded by David Dunham from a third independent location. At least one other impact has thus been confirmed. A Spanish group led by J. L. Ortiz of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia observed several impacts with small telescopes. Efforts at larger telescopes were again prevented by bad weather. Two results are shown to the right. The brightest impact flash was recorded on Nov. 18th at 18:27:46 UT, using a Celestron C-8 telescope which was equipped with a focal reducer plus a Watec black and white CCD camera. The observations in the image to the left were carried out by Jose-Antonio Quesada at his own observatory in Huitor Santillin, Granada, Spain. Two more flashes were recorded on video tape by means of a f/6.3 10" Meade telescope equipped with a Watec camera from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia's main building in Granada's downtown. This camera was operated by F. Aceituno and J. Aceituno. A team of four observers from India, led by Dr. T. Chandrasekhar, observed from 12:40 until 14:14 UT and recorded four possible impacts. They observed the dark portion of the moon using the 1.2m telescope located at Gurushikar,Mt Abu,India. The field of view was 3.95 arcmin by 2.75 arcmin. Michael Lachmann and Christophe Marlot, observing in Korea, report two possible impacts. A long series of possible impacts were reported by Kiran Shah, Pradyumna Gogte, and Surabhi Ganguly of Pune India. Additional candidate flashes have been compiled by Brian Cudnik at the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers Impact Alert page. From that compilation, the following list was derived (note that most events remain unconfirmed): Day (Nov) Time(UT) Location Brightness (*=confirmed) Observer h m s (Epoch J2001.5) 17 17 05 43 near Clavius C. Sigismondi 17 16 46 30 J. Bourgeois 17 22 53 30 N Serenitatis T. Cook 18 00 56 11 south-center of disk D. Palmer 18 0118 47 D. Palmer 18 12 50 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 02 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 04 26 18 26 32.1 -24 44 45 T. Chandrasekhar 18 13 13 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 22 16 18 26 51.1 -24 44 25 T. Chandrasekhar 18 13 32 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 33 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 35 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 43 01 18 27 45.3 -24 39 55 T. Chandrasekhar 18 13 46 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 47 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 53 14 18 28 11.8 -24 40 53 T. Chandrasekhar 18 13 53 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 57 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 13 57 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 00 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 03 30 18 28 11.4 -24 40 40 T. Chandrasekhar 18 14 06 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 14 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 15 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 28 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 28 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 33 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 37 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 14 49 Mare Crisium K. Shah 18 17 08 30 J.C. Echaniz Heider (visual) 18 17 09 20 shore of Mare Tranquilitatis M. Stangl Graz (visual) 18 17 12 20 J.C. Echaniz Heider (visual) 18 17 58 41 F. Aceituno 18 18 09 50 J.C. Echaniz Heider (visual) 18 18 27 46 16W, -23S +5.1 J.-A. Quesada 18 18 10 36 15E, +39N J.-A. Quesada 18 18 20 15 F. Aceituno 18 18 29 07 J.-A. Quesada 18 23 25 20 SW mare Vaporum T. Cook 18 23 25 33 SW of Kepler T. Cook 18 23 19 15 Lacus Gaudi R. Venable 18 23 19 15 * R. Venable, D. Dunham, A. Cook 19 00 18 47 (e-noise?) D. Palmer 19 00 18 58 +4 * A. Cook, D. Dunham, D. Palmer 19 00 39 59 R. Venable 19 00 46 14 D. Palmer 19 00 48 13 D. Palmer 19 00 58 17 D. Palmer 19 01 22 37 D. Palmer 19 01 24 13 D. Palmer 19 09 40 01 +8 M. Lachmann 19 09 51 +7 M. Lachmann (seen also visually) 19 19 23 48 J.-A. Quesada Previous news items: 2001: Dec 01 - Moon impacts Nov 26 - Near-IR persistent train emission Nov 24 - Results of near-real time flux measurements Nov 22 - Wowh! Optical meteor spectra 2000: Dec. 25 - Ursid shower circular IMO Dec. 24 - Ursid shows early release of sodium Dec. 23 - Ursid outburst confirmed Dec. 18 - Dec 22 Ursid outburst Nov. 20 - A bacterial fingerprint? Nov. 15 - HCN disappears mysteriously Nov. 14 - Meteor shower from space Nov. 13 - Organic fingerprint Nov. 12 - Train airglow chemistry Nov. 11 - Hard bits and persisting glows Nov. 10 - Meteoroid debris detected Nov. 09 - New meteor picture Nov. 08 - Spin city Nov. 07 - Meteors affect atmospheric chemistry Nov. 06 - Listen to this! Nov. 04 - Fear of heights? Nov. 03 - The pale (infra-red) dot Nov. 02 - Twin showers Nov. 01 - Leonids approaching Earth Oct. 31 - Prospects for Moon Impact Studies Oct. 30 - Comet dust crumbled less fine Today's news   Top of Page - Text/Image Use Guidelines