Glowy spot in the dark part of the moon

bones · #1 20-10-2009, 08:15 PM

Has anyone noticed a glowy patch in the dark part of the moon tonight? Looking throught a SCT its at about 10 o'clock and about 1/8 the distace from the edge towards the centre. Seems too far from the bright bit tonight to be a mountain. It moves with the moon if I move the scope on it. Am I seeing things?

DavidU (Dave) · #2 20-10-2009, 08:41 PM

MMmmmm, interesting. If it wasn't cloudy I would have a look.

Redshift (Phil) · #3 20-10-2009, 09:59 PM

Alien cook-out?

seanliddelow (Sean) · #4 20-10-2009, 11:11 PM

Could it be earthshine?

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #5 21-10-2009, 12:23 AM

Earthshine has been quite significant over the last couple of days but usually encompasses the whole dark section of the moon. Tried to image it but ran out of time.

AstroJunk (Jonathan) · #6 21-10-2009, 02:33 AM

I did.

It was a crater, I can't recall which one, but it did strike me as being particularly bright. I can't be more helpful I'm afraid - I had a class of students looking at the time and didn't have time to pay much attention

Quote:

Originally Posted by bones

Has anyone noticed a glowy patch in the dark part of the moon tonight? Looking throught a SCT its at about 10 o'clock and about 1/8 the distace from the edge towards the centre. Seems too far from the bright bit tonight to be a mountain. It moves with the moon if I move the scope on it. Am I seeing things?

StarGazing (Alex) · #7 21-10-2009, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidU

MMmmmm, interesting. If it wasn't cloudy I would have a look.

Dont yoou love the fine weather we have been having here in Melbourne ........ At least I am familiar with all sorts of clouds

.
Would like to check it out guys & girls. Let us know if it still is there Bones.

Cheers Alex.

bones · #8 22-10-2009, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarGazing

Dont yoou love the fine weather we have been having here in Melbourne ........ At least I am familiar with all sorts of clouds

.
Would like to check it out guys & girls. Let us know if it still is there Bones.

Cheers Alex.

I would if I could butr since the other night I posted it's always been cloudy.

multiweb (Marc) · #9 22-10-2009, 06:52 PM

That was LCROSS waaayy behind schedule

Glenn Dawes · #10 22-10-2009, 07:10 PM

I can think of 2 possible explanations, both would need you to narrow down the area to a region or crater related to it.

1) There are a half a dozen areas that are known to stand out under Earthshine (as there are those that positively shine under Full Moon).

2) the more interesting (but speculative) cause, Transit Lunar Phenomena (TLPs) (possibly the Lunar version of the UFO's that turn out to be swamp gas!). There are regions that have been known to intermittently glow, for no obvious reasons. I can't remember which areas, but I'm sure a web search would find something.

Regards

Glenn

spearo (Frank) · #11 23-10-2009, 06:11 AM

Mark, it's was on time but tthe speed of light has obviously been significantly slowed down
Damn that LHC !
frank

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

That was LCROSS waaayy behind schedule

Kal (Andrew) · #12 23-10-2009, 02:51 PM

I keep joking with my friends that I imaged the secret moon base on this pic I took (strange feature slightly above centre of pic in the apennine mountains)

PeterM · #13 23-10-2009, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kal

I keep joking with my friends that I imaged the secret moon base on this pic I took (strange feature slightly above centre of pic in the apennine mountains)

Oh no!
Kal you have taken me back to the late 70s when I bought George Leonards book "Someone else is on our Moon". I was at first fascinated by backpage text noting it contained NASA pics showing huge machinery, bridges, tank tracks, spaceports etc, etc. Only I couldn't see anything in the pics that he was on about. And now this, your clear as day image of a secret Moonbase, I may yet turn my scope back towards the Moon.
And for those who like a good who dunnit-
http://www.astrosurf.com/lunascan/Linncont.htm

PeterM.

supernova1965 (Warren) · #14 23-10-2009, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kal

I keep joking with my friends that I imaged the secret moon base on this pic I took (strange feature slightly above centre of pic in the apennine mountains)

OHHHH NOOO you found it now your going to have to watch your back the government types in the black SUV's will be after you they can't let you live after blowing their cover do you need somewhere to hide.