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

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PDP8E
post Oct 6 2009, 03:06 AM
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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


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ElkGroveDan
post Oct 6 2009, 04:12 PM
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QUOTE (PDP8E @ Oct 5 2009, 08:06 PM) *
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!


Well I don't have any decent equipment set up, but I'll put my Canon SLR on a tripod with a 300mm and start firing off the 700 images that fit on the 4G card just prior to the impact and that should take me several minutes down the road, though I seriously doubt anything will be visible at that macro scale. S'pose I could also put my video camera on full zoom which will be similar to the 300mm SLR.

But I'm hoping it will be carried live somewhere. Anyone know if NASA TV has planned a feed of anything useful for that time slot?


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Marz
post Oct 6 2009, 05:23 PM
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QUOTE (ElkGroveDan @ Oct 6 2009, 11:12 AM) *
But I'm hoping it will be carried live somewhere. Anyone know if NASA TV has planned a feed of anything useful for that time slot?


I saw this on the NASA link: a list of public viewing opportunities.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/i...vent_index.html

NASA TV will also show it:
LCROSS Lunar Impact
7:31 a.m. EDT/4:31 a.m. PDT
Friday Oct. 9

An approximately 1.5 hour Live NASA TV Broadcast is planned for the LCROSS impacts starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9, on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The broadcast includes:
Live footage from spacecraft camera Real-time telemetry based animation Views of LCROSS Mission and Science Operations Broadcast commentary with expert guests Prepared video segments Views of the public impact viewing event at NASA Ames Possible live footage from the University of Hawaii, 88-inch telescope on Mauna Kea. The live LCROSS Post-Impact News Conference will be 10 a.m. EDT/7 a.m. PDT on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.

It looks like viewing should be good for most of the western USA/Canada. It'll be dark here in Dallas, TX, but right on the edge of dawn... well, with light pollution it's always on the edge of dawn. It'd be nice to head west a bit, like to the party in San Angelo, to get the high contrast sky. I just have a 3.5" Schmidt-Cassi, so I'm torn between trying to watch it live on the web or my toy-scope.
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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


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