Brian Cudnik
Coordinator
PVAMU Department of
Physics
Prairie View,
mailto:cudnik@sbcglobal.net
This program is designed to standardize and coordinate
amateur observations of meteoroid impacts on the Moon. This field has exciting
possibilities but only if the observations are done in a uniform manner and
pooled to look for confirmations of positive observations. Anyone interested in
participating should contact the Coordinator above for further information. The
Coordinator maintains an "Impact" e-mailing list of regular
participants, e-mail him if you would like to be added to the list. Click here to read the full mission statement.
What's New (06/11/10)?
Classic Impact Alert Notices and Updates
Upcoming Observing Opportunities
Lunar Impact Plots (1999-2006) by Peter Gural
Links to Lunar Impact Information
Lunar
Impact Alert Notices!
Meteor Videotaped On
Jupiter!
The popular astronomy
website www.spaceweather.com
has an image and a video of a meteor on Jupiter, which occurred at 20:31 UT on
June 3rd. If you look at the above website and they have pulled the
story from the front page, simply go to the archives (upper right corner) and
set the archives for June 3 or June 4, 2010 to view the news story. You can
also go to the news section of Astronomy Magazine’s website (http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ss&id=26)
to get the news story. Amateur astronomers Christopher Go (the
As of this writing,
there have been no reports of any dark markings on the face of Jupiter produced
by this impact event, meaning the object must have broken into tiny pieces that
fell harmlessly into the clouds, without the energy needed to dredge up the
deeper “stuff” as has been seen in the 1994 and 2009 impacts. People
have attempted to locate any such markings, but have not seen any such
markings, so I will not be posting any more CM crossing times of the impact
site.
One project that may be
worth pursuing is a continuous monitoring of Jupiter for impact events. This
would need to be done at high powers, enough for 1 arc-second (or better)
resolution. A setup similar to what is used in lunar meteor or asteroid
occultation work, but with larger telescopes (at least 10-inch) and less
sensitive cameras (since Jupiter is bright) would do the trick, and could
reveal the true rate of such impacts with implications for Earth and the impact
probability here.
Opportunities to Observe Lunar Meteor Impacts!
The remainder of the
year does not offer much in the way of significant lunar meteor observation
opportunities. The Perseid peak occurs on the date of the new moon, which is
perfect for observers of the atmospheric Perseids, but not so ideal for the
lunar variety. Observers who do routine monthly observations will experience
elevated levels of meteoroids both during the week prior to New Moon, and the
week following New Moon, as the Perseids are active from July 17 to August 24.
Information about these
and other opportunities to observe lunar meteors in 2010 can be found by clicking here.
Observers are also requested to monitor the moon for up to 10 nights per month in support of the NASA-MSFC effort to regularly patrol the moon, from a waxing crescent of 10% illumination to the first quarter (50% illuminated) phase and again from last quarter to near new moon. Current estimates predict up to 260 impacts per month of objects of 1 kg or greater on the lunar surface, many of which can be captured with ground-based equipment. Thus, it is important to observe the moon as much as possible in order to refine these estimates, which will