Attempt to image the Lunar Prospector impact

For detailed information, also see the Lunar Prospector Impact page



Dateline August 08, 1999....
OK, better late than never, eh? After purchasing a lunar atlas ("Atlas of The Moon", Antonin Rukl) and perusing the charts for a while, I have decided that I indeed DID image the crash site at approximately 0952 UTC. See above. Did I see anything? Nope. But I'm not alone.

The image is rotated clockwise because my scope is alt-az mounted and the moon was west of the meridian.

Conditions were awful here at impact time and before. Hazy, cloudy, and I had an awful time SEEING the moon, let alone finding the imact site. I snapped some images just as the clouds cleared at impact time... the image above is a montage of two of them. Quality is sub-par because it was very dark and cloudy and I was shooting through light cloud cover. After processing, I salvaged at least some data. The best laid plans..... etc.

Equipment used:

Telescope:
8" f10 Meade LX200, remote controlled from inside the house using Earth Centered Universe (a planetarium program) and/or ACP (Astronomers Control Panel), a remote control panel for the LX200 telescope.

Camera:
PC23C video camera from Super Circuits at prime focus, modified to prevent video gain from rising on small bright targets. Capture contrast will be adjusted to hopefully allow seeing detail on the limb.

Capture device:
ATI All In Wonder Pro video card at 640 by 480 resolution.

Webcam software:
WebCam32 a Windows 95, Windows98 and Windows NT application which allows video camera images to be displayed within a web page.


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