Metoerite impact on moon

[chiaroscuro]

I wonder if anyone here saw or even perhaps got a photo of this. It happened in September 2013, but reported this week.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/24/meteorite-moon-largest-lunar-impact-recorded

[brian nordstrom]

:eyepop: Thanks for that Luke , wish I had caught that it would have been spectacular .
Brian.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Better there than down here.

[Ric]

Interesting story.

I didn't even know it had happened until I read this.

[leon]

Yea, news to me as well ??

Leon

[chiaroscuro]

The article says it was visible to the naked eye for 8 seconds. I can only imagine what it would have looked like through a decent scope.
Thank goodness for the atmosphere on earth, is all I can say.

[AstroJunk]

I have read that there are around a dozen of these recorded every year, and the scientists are keen to capture more. I have been meaning to grab some data myself, but the process of sifting through many hours of video for a 'flash' doesn't appeal!

Currently there is no software available to make the task remotely humane (not that I know of at least), so one can only assume that there must be many tens of events each year that could be seen if one was dedicated enough.

A nice example of some useful scientific data that is well within the reach of the amateur...

[pdalek]

Fairly common

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/lunar/#.Uwvrc_k0UuU

Saw one through 16" f/3.3 in 1979 though nobody would believe me at the time - the accepted wisdom was this sort of thing only happened in the distant past.

Edit:
Wrong year, it was 1981. My old notebook records that was when I swapped out the cas secondary for the newt diagonal and triplet corrector.

[AstroJunk]

"Accepted Wisdom"
"Scientific Consensus"
"Defacto Standard"
"Best of Breed"

All terms used by the closed minded to get their way :rofl:

[chiaroscuro]

Give me "scientific consensus" over "accepted wisdom" and the others, any day. ;-)

At least the former can be quantified by looking at peer reviewed papers.

Anyway, I envy you, Patrick, for having been able to see it through a scope. What an unforgettable experience.

[pdalek]

To be fair, it took me quite some time to figure out that is what I probably saw.

It doesn't take a very big rock to get plenty of light. The typical near miss rocks you read about every few months carry a kinetic energy equal to a few days world energy production (coal, gas, oil, nuclear, etc). A Chicxulub class object is about 1000 years of world energy.