[meteorite-list] Observed Lunar Impact 50th Anniv Stuart's Crater

From: Joecuriale_at_aol.com <Joecuriale_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:27:45 2004
Message-ID: <102.383f7f3d.2cdd3970_at_aol.com>

In a message dated 11/7/03 12:59:45 AM, jonee_at_epix.net writes:

<< On the morning of November 15, 1953, amateur astronomer Dr. Leon Stuart
photographed what he believed to be a massive, white-hot fireball of
vaporized rock rising from the center of the Moon's face. If his theory
was correct, he would be the first and only human in history to witness
and document the impact of an asteroid-sized body impacting the Moon. >>

Dear list:

According to what I read in the book "Rain of Fire and Ice" by John S. Lewis,
the above statement, "the first and only human in history to witness and
document the impact of an asteroid-sized body impacting the Moon" is not true...

On page 50 it states:

Another unique lunar event was recorded on A.D June 25, 1178 by Gervase, a
monk at Canterbury, England:

In this year, on the Sunday before the feast of St. John the Baptist, after
sunset when the Moon had first become visible, a marvelous phenomenon was
witnessed by some five or more men who were sitting facing the Moon. Now there was
a bright new Moon, and as usual in that phase its horns were tilted to the
east; and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of the division
a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire,
hot coals, and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the Moon which was below writhed,
as it were, in anxiety, and, to put it in the words of those who reported it
to me and saw it with their own eyes, the Moon throbbed like a wounded snake.
Afterwards it resumed its proper state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen
times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes at random and then
returning to normal. Then, after these transformations, the Moon from horn to
horn, along its whole length, took on a blackish appearance. The present writer
was given this report by men who saw it with their own eyes, and are prepared
to stake their honor on an oath that they have made no additions or
falsifications in the above narrative.

Meteorite expert Jack Hartung has interpreted Gervase's narrative as
referring to the formation of the crater Giordano Bruno on the Moon by a comet or
asteroid impact. Photographic mapping has revealed that Bruno is probably the
youngest large crater on the Moon. (etc)...
Received on Fri 07 Nov 2003 01:07:44 PM PST