Probe To Crash Into Moon - Sat Night / Sun Morning

[Dubh Aingeal]

Amateur astronomers will be excited to note that they can witness the impact of the SMART-1 probe crashing? into the moon. The impact is scheduled for the morning of September 2nd (PDT). From the article: 'There's nothing wrong with the spacecraft, which is wrapping up a successful 3-year mission to the Moon. SMART-1's main job was to test a European-built ion engine. It worked beautifully, propelling the craft in 2003 on a unique spiral path from Earth to the Moon. From lunar orbit, SMART-1 took thousands of high-resolution pictures and made mineral maps of the Moon's terrain. One of its most important discoveries was a "Peak of Eternal Light," a mountaintop near the Moon's north pole in constant, year-round sunlight. Peaks of Eternal Light are prime real estate for solar-powered Moon bases.

[BrassFusion]

I assume this won't be visible with the naked eye.

[Dubh Aingeal]

No but it might be with a decent pair of binoculars, but definetly will be with most telescopes people own.

[BrassFusion]

No but it might be with a decent pair of binoculars, but definetly will be with most telescopes people own.

Hey... I DO have a decent pair of binoculars...

And a decent pair of boobies.

Sorry, it's late, lol.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Thanks for the heads up on this one. I researched this out a bit. I do have a crap telescope but i doubt its decent enough (basicly a toy, was state of the art around the time they threw galielo into the klink)

I've been wanting to get a decent telescope for a good 10 years but never could quite get myself ot "waste" the money on one. Hrmm i have 2 days to get one lol. Probably not gonna happen.

I'll see if i have the energy to sort out the exact imapact spot and see if my POS telescope can zero in on the area.

Im not so sure binocs are going to work to well unless you have a uber-steady hand. You can make out craters and such but the "wobble" , unless this impact is supposed to be gigantic im guessing will be difficult to spot with unsteady optics. (random guess)

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Heres a short video giving the quick overview of what the deal is:

(click on the little "play now" icon)

ESA Smart-1

Interesting that they cant stop it from crashing , but that they are aiming it so that we can view the impact from earth.

[Der Nister]

The impact is scheduled for the morning of September 2nd (PDT).

Do they usually schedule crashes?

[kellygrrrrrl]

I would risk my life to travel into space as a guinea pig.....crash me into the moon dammit....or any planet.

If anything, I'd want to be the 1st female on a mission to Jupiter - then die in all of it' gloriuous radiation

[Msterbeau]

My daughter just got a telescope from her mom for her birthday... I'm allowed to borrow it!!

How do you determine where to look... based on where you're looking from?

Also... It said crash time was 10:41 PM PSDT. Which I assume means it'll be 1:41AM our time?

[Dubh Aingeal]

How do you determine where to look... based on where you're looking from?

The coordinates are 46.2º West longitude and 33.3º South latitude. So if you can find a map that lays out coordinates on the moon (still looking for one) you can get the exact spot it would crash.

Its also possable it might not make it to its schedualed crash site. There is a crater thats along its path that may or may not be high enough to cause it to crash early.

At 02:37 CEST (00:37 UT), one orbit earlier, the spacecraft should be just flying at its perilune. By that time, it will be over crater Clausius (25 kilometres diameter and 2.5 kilometres depth), at about 800 metres above the Lake of Excellence volcanic plain. As observed from these SMART-1 images, the rim of crater Clausius (bottom right of the image) is quite low and eroded, and should possibly be below SMART-1 last perilune.

"If SMART-1 passes safely the rim of crater Clausius, the probe will go for its last lunar orbital tour until its foretold death," said Bernard Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Ok heres a gigantic picture of the predicted most likely impact site:

And here is the actual SMART mission website asking people to watch and it gives 3 possible landing sites/times.

Over on the right hand side is a link to a lunar atlas as well as other aspects of where/how to watch it. Pretty interesting even if your out getting hammered at city club that night.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=39841

WTB spaceflight ticket send to Troy@home C.O.D.

Edited Dubs title slightly (just added the day)

[Msterbeau]

Watching the moon last night... it's going to be below the horizon for us at the annointed time.

[Dubh Aingeal]

SMART-1 has hit the Moon , just as planned and — even better — the impact threw out a bright infrared that was seen by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. There's an animation of the images grabbed by the telescope. Scientists now hope to analyse the chemistry of the rock ejected by the crash.