LCROSS en route - Unmanned Spaceflight.com

LCROSS en route

Options

NGC3314

Jul 15 2009, 03:08 PM

Post #1

Junior Member

Group: Members
Posts: 87
Joined: 9-November 07
Member No.: 3958

While we're waiting for Those Pictures, here are a couple of shots of LCROSS from our campus observatory last night (0221, 027 UT on 15 July). 4 minute exposures tracking expected motion from the Horizons ephemeris, within 20 degrees of the southern horizon and fighting summertime haze as well as city lights. I wanted to catch it before its inclined orbit takes it too far south, after which it spends a week or so as a predawn object. The range was about 563,000 km, and the Centaur is no bigger than a CSM/LM combination, so this is a more difficult target than spotting an Apollo enroute was. (On the other hand, nobody had CCD imagers in 1969).

Replies

PDP8E View Member Profile	Oct 6 2009, 03:06 AM Post #2
Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241	impact is Oct 9, 7:30am-ish local time with the sun up here in Boston....don't think I going to see anything (sun rises at 6:50am). West Coast Amateurs : you are our only hope! The LCROSS Centaur impact is scheduled for 4:31 a.m. PDT or 7:31 a.m. EDT (11:31 UTC) on October 9, 2009. The sheparding spacecraft will impact at 4:35 a.m. PDT or 7:35 a.m. EDT (11:35 UTC). Mission scientists estimate that the Centaur impact debris plume should be in view several seconds after Centaur impact and will peak in brightness at 30 to 100 seconds after impact. Lunar Impact Locations Centaur: -84.675, 311.275 E Shepherding spacecraft: -84.729, 310.64 E Time Zone Lighting Conditions for Viewing Eastern Daybreak will prevent viewing of the debris plumes. Central Best viewing is West of the Mississippi River. Mountain Excellent lighting conditions. Pacific Excellent lighting conditions. Alaska Excellent lighting conditions. Hawaii Excellent lighting conditions. cheers -------------------- CLA CLL

Posts in this topic

NGC3314 LCROSS en route Jul 15 2009, 03:08 PM

nprev Sweet!!! What's your campus scop... Jul 15 2009, 10:44 PM

NGC3314 0.4m Ritchey-Chretien, using one of the big Santa ... Jul 16 2009, 02:52 AM

Lewis007 An article on the "cold side bake-out" p... Aug 10 2009, 07:25 AM

mps LCROSS experienced an anomaly: http://www.nasa.gov... Aug 25 2009, 06:43 AM

Zvezdichko Oh, this is BAD! But they are optimistic that ... Aug 25 2009, 09:46 AM

nprev Wow. Is the IRU in question part of the Centaur it... Aug 25 2009, 12:39 PM

ugordan Hmm, I thought star trackers were the de facto met... Aug 25 2009, 01:03 PM

John Moore There were some initial problems with the star tra... Aug 25 2009, 05:00 PM

Lewis007 On August 17, LCROSS took additional images of the... Aug 26 2009, 06:41 AM

Marz Here's a Spaceflight article explaining the re... Aug 26 2009, 03:27 PM

Astro0 In response to the Spaceflight Now article, this r... Aug 27 2009, 02:12 AM

nprev Good info, all (thanks for the late-breaking, Astr... Aug 27 2009, 02:21 AM

climber More good news: http://www.spaceref.com/news/views... Sep 5 2009, 05:33 PM

Astro0 Nice memo to the LCROSS team and well deserved. I ... Sep 5 2009, 11:37 PM

climber QUOTE (Astro0 @ Sep 6 2009, 01:37 AM) I... Sep 6 2009, 11:40 AM

stevesliva QUOTE (Astro0 @ Sep 5 2009, 07:37 PM) I... Sep 6 2009, 11:37 PM

Paolo Just announced: impact in Cabeus A Sep 11 2009, 05:13 PM

Hungry4info Quick question regarding DSN time between Cassini ... Sep 11 2009, 05:16 PM

elakdawalla Anybody see any graphics online anywhere? I'v... Sep 11 2009, 05:33 PM

ugordan FWIW, this post over at the NSF.com forum has an i... Sep 11 2009, 05:55 PM

John Moore Cabeus A crater location...the impacts should be v... Sep 11 2009, 06:00 PM

Phil Stooke "Quick question regarding DSN time between Ca... Sep 11 2009, 09:15 PM

Ron Hobbs The above link doesn't work for me; try this o... Sep 11 2009, 10:33 PM

belleraphon1 For those who missed the briefing here it is on Yo... Sep 11 2009, 11:19 PM

eoincampbell Thank you for posting that very informative press ... Sep 12 2009, 05:56 AM

PhilCo126 For those hoping to see the impact; here're th... Sep 12 2009, 08:05 AM

Tman Here a GIF animation of the Moon phase and the vis... Sep 13 2009, 03:50 PM

Paolo Target crater switched from Cabeus A to Cabeus (pr... Sep 28 2009, 08:46 PM

John Moore I would think that they'll probably aim for th... Sep 29 2009, 01:03 PM

Phil Stooke http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/386497main_target-selectio... Sep 29 2009, 01:45 PM

John Moore Thanks Phil Page 19 is very useful and probably m... Sep 29 2009, 03:06 PM

tanjent Note that in the Colaprete report the Earth observ... Sep 29 2009, 04:34 PM

Phil Stooke The latest release did refer to new topographic da... Sep 29 2009, 04:55 PM

elakdawalla Ask and ye shall receive I asked your questions ... Sep 29 2009, 08:19 PM

Phil Stooke Here's a map of the approximate locations of t... Oct 2 2009, 03:30 PM

elakdawalla What are the coordinates of the different impact s... Oct 2 2009, 04:03 PM

Tman The Google group of LCROSS (amateur) Observation h... Oct 2 2009, 04:35 PM

Phil Stooke From the Observation Group website: -------------... Oct 2 2009, 08:06 PM

dmuller QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Oct 3 2009, 06:06 AM... Oct 4 2009, 12:53 AM

John Moore Took the latter coords., -- rough idea, therefore,... Oct 2 2009, 10:41 PM

Phil Stooke Here's the latest info from Tony Colaprete, vi... Oct 3 2009, 08:45 PM

John Moore That's better! The recent DIVINER image ... Oct 4 2009, 02:01 PM

Phil Stooke This is what I get by overlaying Colaprete's m... Oct 4 2009, 02:36 PM

John Moore Isn't that exact same as in my link above? Jo... Oct 4 2009, 03:45 PM

Phil Stooke It's the image processing that's different... Oct 4 2009, 03:59 PM

centsworth_II Here's the map comparison that interests me: T... Oct 4 2009, 04:59 PM

Phil Stooke Also the map of hydrogen concentrations is very mo... Oct 4 2009, 05:07 PM

Phil Stooke This is a comparison of the points John and I matc... Oct 4 2009, 05:18 PM

JGodbaz QUOTE (centsworth_II @ Oct 5 2009, 05:59 ... Oct 5 2009, 08:10 AM

centsworth_II QUOTE (JGodbaz @ Oct 5 2009, 03:10 AM) Th... Oct 5 2009, 03:34 PM

John Moore @ Phil...ah yes...see what you mean, your points a... Oct 5 2009, 11:00 AM

Phil Stooke John, it's only the 'quote' business t... Oct 5 2009, 11:16 AM

Phil Stooke It's hard to keep these maps up to date! ... Oct 6 2009, 01:16 AM

JGodbaz Thanks, I wasn't aware of the new release. I... Oct 6 2009, 01:31 AM

Phil Stooke If it was worse, would they have chosen it? They ... Oct 6 2009, 01:37 AM

JGodbaz They don't have a lot of choice as there aren... Oct 6 2009, 01:42 AM

Phil Stooke I think you're right. I bet the site selectio... Oct 6 2009, 01:47 AM

PDP8E impact is Oct 9, 7:30am-ish local time with the su... Oct 6 2009, 03:06 AM

ElkGroveDan QUOTE (PDP8E @ Oct 5 2009, 08:06 PM) impa... Oct 6 2009, 04:12 PM

Marz QUOTE (ElkGroveDan @ Oct 6 2009, 11:12 AM... Oct 6 2009, 05:23 PM

MahFL "NASA to Bomb the Moon Friday " Good god... Oct 6 2009, 06:09 PM

centsworth_II QUOTE (MahFL @ Oct 6 2009, 02:09 PM) ... Oct 6 2009, 06:30 PM

centsworth_II QUOTE (MahFL @ Oct 6 2009, 01:09 PM) ... Oct 8 2009, 11:13 PM

Stu QUOTE (Marz @ Oct 6 2009, 06:23 PM) I jus... Oct 6 2009, 09:52 PM

Phil Stooke Ahh, good old Social Media! Lots of entertain... Oct 6 2009, 02:36 PM

nprev Okay, I'm convinced. Gonna dust off the ol... Oct 7 2009, 12:05 AM

AndyG I suspect it won't be up to Gervase of Canterb... Oct 7 2009, 08:52 AM

MahFL A far far better report. Good to see media coverag... Oct 8 2009, 11:50 AM

centsworth_II LCROSS audio briefing HERE. QUOTE Thursday, Oct. ... Oct 8 2009, 05:38 PM

scalbers Wonder if there are any flyover movies (or sequenc... Oct 8 2009, 07:44 PM

Phil Stooke Phil Oct 8 2009, 07:52 PM

nprev AAACKKK!!!! I thought he was gonna... Oct 8 2009, 08:14 PM

scalbers Here's a crude attempt at animating the lunar ... Oct 8 2009, 09:14 PM

nprev LCROSS- Centaur separation succesful!!... Oct 9 2009, 02:15 AM

« Next Oldest · LRO & LCROSS · Next Newest »