27 July 2006

Observing Location	Bryant Park, New York, NY
Observational Period	1245-1300 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Hazy, hot and humid. Overcast with occasional breaks in the heaviest clouds. A moderate breeze. Good Transparency Poor Seeing
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/ gold welder's glass- Charlie.
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Gem
Category	Solar
Time	20060727.1245 EDT
Comments	The only thing visible is group 901 which appears as a tiny spot smack dab in the middle of the sun. I checked at raben systems, inc, and found that this spot is slightly north of the equator. They also say that the spot is changing in size slowly (+/- 25% over the past 24 hours) but the image in my binocular is too small for me to see the change.   Groups Spots R North 1 1 11 South 0 0 0 Total 1 1 11 R = (G*10) + S

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I am registered as an observer for the impact of the SMART-1 satellite into the Moon. This is scheduled to occur at 2223 +/-2 minutes EDT on 2Sep06 +/-1 orbit (~7 hours). If it happens on the scheduled orbit the Moon will be visible in the WSW from TotL. If it happens on either the orbit before or after the predicted impact orbit the Moon will be below the horizon from NYC.

The impact is expected to occur in the lower left quadrant of the Moon (direct view), just inside the terminator and south of Lacus Excellentiae which in turn is below Mare Humorum.

Virtual Moon Atlas graphic

In this image all of the potential impact areas are identified. The Orbit +1 impact is somewhere along the vertical line.

Smart-1 Lunar impact Project graphic Alternative landing sights are identified on this image from the SMART-1 Lunar Impact Project web site.

Here is a close up of the primary impact area. It is in the area around crater A below Doppelmayer and to the left of Lee.

Virtual Moon Atlas graphic

The reason they don’t know exactly which orbit the satellite will impact on is because not enough is known about the topography of the Moon to be sure that it will not hit a mountain peak on Orbit -1 or that it will hit the Moon on Orbit 0.

Impact one orbit early ( Orbit -1 )
9/2/06 20h 21m 20s +/- 2 minutes UT

Predicted impact time  ( Orbit 0 )
9/3/06 01h 26m 24s +/- 2 minutes UT

Impact one Orbit Late ( Orbit +1 )
9/03/06 06h 31m 44s +/- 2 minutes UT

The terminator and Moon will be in roughly the same position on the evening of 4Aug06 so the people organizing this want us all to go out with out equipment for a dry run. This is to make sure our proposed observing location is a good one. Then we are supposed to observe the projected impact area so we will recognize any changes that might be visible. I am not expecting to see a whole lot, if anything, at 40x with only 107mm of aperture, but, as I always say, I garuntee I won't see anything if I don't go out.

[3Aug06: I just read in the August 2006 Sky & Telescope that "...the impact flash is predicted to be fainter than 11th magnitude. But if the dust cloud is large enough and extends outward enough it could appear at magnitude 5."
That puts the impact flass too dim for me to see it with any of my optics but the dust cloud should be visible if it gets to Mag 5.]