[meteorite-list] SMART-1 SMASHES

From: MexicoDoug <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Sep 3 06:14:21 2006
Message-ID: <002c01c6cf41$4d217520$f5cd5ec8_at_0019110394>

Hello Moon watchers...

Reporting back from NE Mexico... where the sky really cooperated for a
change ! The view of the Moon was a comfortable 20 degrees above the
horizon at time zero with windless superb seeing and a sharp 25X100 giant
binocular (same as my lat/long). Rob's crater (which Sterling identified
as Herschel) was very scenic in our view, too. What we found really
dazzling along the terminator was - where two contrasty crater basins was
blackened still by lunar night and the three dimensions relief perceptions
so awesome: These craters were nearby - at 200 and 275 km southeast -
relative to the planned impact site, respectively. If you saw them,
according to the Lunar Atlas below, the names there are Crater Mee (132 km
diameter) where the high rim on the left peeked above into the Lunar
morning, as well as the low incident angle, long ellipsoid Crater Schiller
(180 km major axis), too which had rims that were brighter and suggestive of
long islands of light piercing the Luna's darkness.

http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/sections/g2.shtml

With all the good things it had going for it, we saw no flash whatsoever at
the appointed hour, and kept watching diligently for another 45 minutes,
with superb resolution (better than the 10 km craters were discernable) all
the while. There was no plume at all visible :-(. But this was the nicest
views we've ever had of our celestial moonstruck companion. The skies were
so friendly if was like a commercial for United and we did a couple of hours
longer...

G'Night!
Doug

Robert wrote:

Anyone got anything to report? Unbelievably, the
Moon slipped into the ONLY cloud in the sky here just
ONE minute or so before impact!
Received on Sun 03 Sep 2006 06:11:16 AM PDT