The Moon

[Robert TG]

This is a general information thread on The Moon.

Please feel free to add some facts or questions about the Moon.


The Moon is our nearest neighbour being a mere 384,400 Km away. Very close indeed. In 1969 it took three days to get there. (to get to Mars at the same speed would take one year eight months)
12 men have actually walked on the surface of the Moon. Which, so far, I think is man's greatest space achievement.

The Moon is a little more than 1/3 the size of the Earth, which makes it a Large satellite for earth to have.

The Moon does have a wisp of atmoshere. The whole Lunar atmosphere amounts to about 10,000 kilograms and is made up of four gases. Neon 29%, Helium 26%, Hydrogen 23% and Argon 21%...leaving 1% of trace gases. These gases do escape from the moon but are replenished by the solar wind and from radioactive decay in Lunar rocks.

The Moon is slowly receding from Earth.


There are a lot more facts about The Moon...please add a few. :yesplease:

[Radar]

About six years ago I saw a bright light on the moon's surface. I was still relatively new to using a telescope and had no idea what this light was.

I showed my mother and partner who happen to be there at the time.

This light looked like a bright star on the lunar surface.

A few months later I caught a documentary that showed how the Apollo space mission left reflectors on the moon's surface, so that NASA could take measurements.

I figured that this is what I saw, until years later I stumbled across an phenomenon called Transient Lunar Phenomenom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_lunar_phenomenon

This is similar to what I saw.

http://www.astrofilitrentini.it/images/tlp1.jpg

The Jury is still out on what causes these things. I have my own theories. :pipethinker:

[Astro Dave]

Radar

There are two possibilities here;

Over the years, amateur astronomers have reported puffs or flashes of light coming from the Moon's surface. While many professional astronomers insisted the moon was inactive, the amateur sightings kept open a window of doubt. Something was ‘moving around’ on the Moon’s surface!

A team of scientists from Brown University have announced evidence for fresh geologic activity on the Moon. Although lunar volcanism was supposed to have ceased billions of years ago, there's at least one place on the Moon where "outgassing" may have happened within the past 10 million years - and may still be happening.

The site is a strange-looking geological feature named "Ina" in a lake of ancient, hardened lava. Ina was first noticed by Apollo astronauts, it's shaped like a letter D about two kilometers wide.

Three things about Ina point to recent activity: Ina has mysteriously sharp edges. Something that razor sharp shouldn't stay around long. It ought to be destroyed within 50 million years. The destroyer of sharp edges on the Moon is a constant rain of small meteoroids that wear down mountains and craters to a nub, given time. Ina's sharp features suggest great youth.

Ina is sparsely cratered. While small meteoroids sandblast the terrain into smoothness, larger meteoroids and asteroids make craters. The older the surface, the more heavily cratered it becomes.

Ina is bright and has odd colours. Rocks and dirt on the surface of the Moon grow darker as time passes. Ina, however, is bright, as if fresh dirt has been overturned and newly exposed.

It all adds up to outgassing: Astronomers believe there has been a rapid release of gasses, blowing off surface deposits and exposing less weathered materials. The gasses may have been trapped below ground for millions or billions of years and released by, say, a recent moonquake. Viola! What you see is a 'flash or glint of light.' So … the Moon may not be so dead after all.

The other thing to consider in your case are Meteoroids smashing into the Moon. This happens a lot more often than anyone expected.

That's the tentative conclusion of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, after the team observed two meteors from the recent Leonids shower hitting the Moon on November 17, 2006.

They’ve now seen12 lunar impacts since they started monitoring the Moon one year ago, that's about four times more hits than our computer models predicted. If correct, this conclusion could influence planning for future moon missions – it would be deadly walking around out there!

Meteoroids that hit Earth disintegrate harmlessly (and beautifully) in the atmosphere. But the Moon has no atmosphere to protect it, so meteoroids don't stop in the sky... they hit the ground.

The vast majority of these meteoroids are dust-sized, and their impacts are hardly felt. But bigger debris can gouge a crater in the lunar surface and explode in a flash of heat and light. Some flashes can be seen from Earth.

OOps, I'm running out of ink!!! Hope this helps.

[Radar]

Hi Dave,

Yeah those metoeroids will be a problem for any moon base. Espescially for someone who suffers from Meteorophobia (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-12%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=meteorophobia+).

The light I saw on the moon lasted for around 20 minutes. It was like a bright white star.

I'm not sure what outgassing would look like, but for me to see this from Earth, it would have taken a tremendous amount of gas.

One idea I thought of was that the silicon on the surface of the moon had turned into glass from an impact millions of years ago. When the moon is at the right angle and the conditions are right, the glass surface acts as a giant reflector of sunlight (maybe). :hmm:

[Tenacious Del]

Hmm, this is pretty interesting to think what could have caused this. A bright white light visible from Earth for around 20 minutes? That is a lot of energy. You were lucky to see this phenomena Radar.

[Astro Dave]

Yes, I agree radar this was indeed a fortuitous sighting.... and possibly a good red as well??

No, really - in the 60's we used to get reports from amateur astronomers of what they called "moon domes" moving around on the surface. Small white 'things' which appeared one night and gone the next.

These reports were scoffed at by almost everybody because they simply couldn't exist could they? "It can't be therefore it isn't " turns up again almost everywhere you look these-days.

I don't tackle this kind of negativity anymore - too old for it and no patience left. You believe what you want to believe.

Moon domes, yes ... peculiar stuff. Maybe, just maybe Radar, you have a competitor from another forum monitoring your every move from afar. While you were looking at him he may have been looking at you. Silly, isn't it.

Here's a quote I like, " In order to reach the truth, it is necessary, once in awhile, to put everything in doubt as far as possible." Rene' Descartes

[Radar]

Yes, I agree radar this was indeed a fortuitous sighting.... and possibly a good red as well??

No, really - in the 60's we used to get reports from amateur astronomers of what they called "moon domes" moving around on the surface. Small white 'things' which appeared one night and gone the next.

These reports were scoffed at by almost everybody because they simply couldn't exist could they? "It can't be therefore it isn't " turns up again almost everywhere you look these-days.


Moon domes? Don't know what that could be. I haven't even got a theory that could come close to explaining that.

Bright white light, like a bright star on the moon's surface is what I saw.



Maybe, just maybe Radar, you have a competitor from another forum monitoring your every move from afar.

I don't doubt this for one second Dave.. Though it is flattering to know that other admins find my site so interesting, that they need to look in on it. (or have it looked into) :Chessy_Smile:

The more the merrier I say, even secret agents are welcome! :cool!:

124

[CanisMajorTom]

I can't see how outgassing could cause illumination as bright as this. Wouldn't the gas be invisible? Or would the gas ignite as solar radiation hits it? I don't know. Obviously TLP's exist because there is quite a bit of data on them, but outgassing just doesn't do it for me. This is a classic astro investigation. :hmm:

[phoenix]

Gday everyone
For all you moon addicts, theres going to be a moon eclipse on the weekend.
unfortunately we wont be able to see it here. :crying23:
For you guys in w.a heres the link.





http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/12feb_lunareclipse.htm





Cheers Jason :pipethinker:

[Noel Carboni]

Hm, interesting stuff indeed!

I captured a high resolution image of the moon, though I don't think I caught any of those special lights in it.

I also made up a version of it with the color greatly exaggerated, to highlight the various materials making up the surface. Here are the images (click on these to see high resolution versions):

http://ccarboni.home.att.net/Moon_High_Res_Tiny.jpg (http://ccarboni.home.att.net/Moon_High_Res_Half.jpg)

http://ncarboni2.home.att.net/Moon_Hypersaturated_Thumbnail.jpg (http://ncarboni2.home.att.net/Moon_Hypersaturated.jpg)

-Noel

[Radar]

Stunning shots mate. Those are good enough to be maps of the moon.

[phoenix]

HEY NOEL

Those moon shots are awesome.:welldone:

Especially that colour one. :cool!:

Camera or cam? :hmm:




Cheers Jason.:pipethinker:

[Draig]

Hi All,

This is what I like about this forum :-

Great Images, Good company and loads on new information and facts.

Until now I had never heard of, yet alone seen a, TLP. I'll have to pay more attention now :hmm: .

Thanks Guys

Cheers Colin

[Astro Dave]

Colin, you are right. Forums like this one concentrate on giving and receiving information in a friendly, non belligerent sort of way. They also serve as a dialogue outlet for those who don't have the advantage of a close knit astro-group or society with whom to socialise.

As long as it keeps to that formula, the very formula these things were founded on in the first place, all will be OK. You don't need personal jibes or deliberate attempts to undermine anyone else. Likewise, these are not places to push ones own personal agenda or push it for someone else.

I know the moderators have learned what can happen from looking at other forums. I believe in them. I believe too that they will act with honesty and integrity in overseeing each post.

it is a nice forum, AND growing bigger each day. Congrats Ray: He's not a bad bloke for a West Australian. (has anyone ever seen one by the way ... do they look like us?? I'm fair dinkum!)

[Dusty]

I captured a high resolution image of the moon, though I don't think I caught any of those special lights in it.

I also made up a version of it with the color greatly exaggerated, to highlight the various materials making up the surface. Here are the images (click on these to see high resolution versions):

-Noel
These are first class images Noel.

:welldone:

[AstroTasmania]

When I lived in the UK, I belonged to the Lunar Section of the BAA, under the direction of Patrick Moore. We were very active looking for TLP's and had a phone network to contact observers when an event was observed. We all had these Red & Blue filter blink devices, which made it easier to observe these transient events. I personally never observed an event, but there are records of events which were observed by others in the group. Certain well-known craters were regularly observed and a list is available somewhere of these.

In more recent times, observers have recorded meteor impacts as very split second flashes, with very sensitive video cameras. Reports are available on the NASA site. There is also an established American TLP group always looking for interested observers. Do a Google search if interested.

Clear skies...

[Radar]

I know the moderators have learned what can happen from looking at other forums. I believe in them. I believe too that they will act with honesty and integrity in overseeing each post.


Thanks mate. We will do our best. :thumbsupmate:



it is a nice forum, AND growing bigger each day. Congrats Ray: He's not a bad bloke for a West Australian. (has anyone ever seen one by the way ... do they look like us?? I'm fair dinkum!)

West Australians have been known to look similar to other humans around the world, except that we have green attenae on our heads and sucker plunger type things on the end of our fingers. :duh:

[Astro Dave]

I just had a look, geographically, at exactly where you are in relation to the rest of 'Pangea'.

Good god Radar, you're almost on the other side of the world. It looks like ca/4,000km form Sydney mate. You're very close to another country,just a hop,skip and jump - you're almost an African Radar!!

Do you get normal stuff there ... like ... mail deliveries, milk in cartons and beer?

Either way, you're a long way from civilisation, radar old chap.

[AstroTasmania]

Hi Noel

Fantastic images, Noel. You must have had some really good seeing to get this level of detail, I looked at some of the detail in the rilles, the Alpine Valley and the Stadius area, not easy to achieve with still DSLR methods. The false colour image I could spend hours going over the fine colour distribution, just magic.

If the clouds ever clear long enough, I will see how my D200 performs on the Moon, my Canon 350D is not back from Korea yet after its modification. The 350D is so light compared to the D100 & D200. I am also curious to see what results I get on the Moon with my filterless D50 at infra red.

Keep posting images like this - please!

Clear skies...

[Dusty]

my Canon 350D is not back from Korea yet after its modification.
It would be very interesting to see the results from your modified cooled 350D Shevill and the Tak E180-ED

:thumbsupmate:

[wakaleo]

There are a lot more facts about The Moon...please add a few. :yesplease:

The Moon is 1/400th the size of the Sun but is 400 times closer to Earth which is why a total solar eclipse is possible. Moon dust is highly abrasive. The dark side looks quite different from the side we see.

Some say the Moon is hollow; some even say it is not naturally occurring but was built by aliens. Although I've been around long enough to know that just about anything is possible, this one, like me winning the Iron Man title, would be a high-risk bet.




I also made up a version of it with the color greatly exaggerated, to highlight the various materials making up the surface. Here are the images (click on these to see high resolution versions)

-Noel

Very nice pics Noel. Like Shevill, I've copied the colour enhanced image to pore over. This is also what I like best about the site - all the wonderful images posted by members.

[phoenix]

Here's a moon atlas in grid location that i thought could be handy for some new comers that don't know the names of the surface of the moon like craters, seas and mountains ect.



http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/index.shtml





Cheers Jason :pipethinker:

[wakaleo]

Great site, Jason. That should help all lunatics a lot!

[Radar]

Yeah Jase, that site is pretty comprehensive. Thanks for posting mate. :thumbsupmate: