Strange Moon - Apr 18 evening

TrevorRoberts · #1 19-04-2010, 10:56 AM

Hi, I'm a newbie who has been unable to find another place to report a strange phenomenon that I witnessed last night in northern NSW in the late afternoon as the crescent moon became more visible. My wife also saw it. I called my daughter in Sydney and she also could see it, describing exactly what we were seeing. I am 61 and have been a moon and star watcher all my life (in a limited, amateur sense) but I have never seen this in the moon before. What we saw was obviously an illusion, but the points of the horns of the crescent moon appeared to be split. The "splits" went for about 10% of the arc of the crescent, and the rest of the moon appeared normal. I raced home (it took an hour) and was just able to catch the moon before it set. Visually, the moon had not changed. Through my 80x binoculars, there was not sign of the splitting, but there was a lot of atmospheric shimmering at the boundary of the moon. Can anyone help by either explaining the phenomenon or by pointing me to where I can report this and get some information. What this has shown me is that if I had seen something really interesting, I'd have no way of knowing how/where to report it.

Thanks

Trevor Roberts

AstralTraveller (David) · #2 19-04-2010, 11:51 AM

Trevor,

Welcome to old age. I'm younger than you and I see that all the time. By comparing the view in each eye and by rotating my head I've become convinced it is in my eyes. You will have double images of the whole moon but it is only obvious on the horns.

TrevorRoberts · #3 19-04-2010, 12:58 PM

Thanks, David... I'd be happy with that explanation except for the fact that my wife also saw it as did my daughter it, and she lives in Sydney whereas we are in northern NSW. None of us has ever seen the moon appear like that before. I'm inclined to think that there is something going due to the volcanic eruption and it is causing the atmosphere to refract the light in a strange way - except my large binoculars revealed nothing out of the ordinary, nor did the stars or Mars appear different.

I'll keep monitoring.

mental4astro (Alexander) · #4 19-04-2010, 01:08 PM

Hi there,

Too soon for the volcanic debris to have entered our southern skies yet to make a visible difference in the sky.

It is a 'trick' of our eyes what you are seeing. It is confirmed by your description of what you say through the binos. Our eyes' are relatively small pupils are seeing the faint effects caused by the low moon going through the various layers of the atmosphere which have different densities due to temperature. What you saw was a mirage. I've sometimes seen stars blur out near the horizon. Same effect. Most obvious over hot land as the temperature difference is greater.

Amazing to have seen the split in the 'horns' of the moon thought. Lucky fellow. Don't know of anywhere else you could report this too, sorry. Mr Albert Viar would tell you something else though: probably that you caught the 'bad guys' using the moon to launch their...

I've only managed to see the 'green flash' of the setting sun once, 25 years ago. Yet to get to see it again.

TrevorRoberts · #5 19-04-2010, 02:19 PM

Thanks, Alexander... your expl. of mirage sounds totally plausible. There was a lot of shimmering in the atmosphere shown up in my 80x binos, so I think I can sleep easily now. I do feel lucky, as it was really an odd looking thing... I'll be on the lookout even more closely in the future for a reappearance. This afternoon's very cloudy, so I don't think I will get another chance later today.

Thanks again... and I'm glad it's not just my 61yo eyes!

mental4astro (Alexander) · #6 19-04-2010, 02:32 PM

By the way,

to IIS Trevor!

mozzie (Peter) · #7 19-04-2010, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mental4astro

Hi there,

Too soon for the volcanic debris to have entered our southern skies yet to make a visible difference in the sky.

It is a 'trick' of our eyes what you are seeing. It is confirmed by your description of what you say through the binos. Our eyes' are relatively small pupils are seeing the faint effects caused by the low moon going through the various layers of the atmosphere which have different densities due to temperature. What you saw was a mirage. I've sometimes seen stars blur out near the horizon. Same effect. Most obvious over hot land as the temperature difference is greater.

Amazing to have seen the split in the 'horns' of the moon thought. Lucky fellow. Don't know of anywhere else you could report this too, sorry. Mr Albert Viar would tell you something else though: probably that you caught the 'bad guys' using the moon to launch their...

I've only managed to see the 'green flash' of the setting sun once, 25 years ago. Yet to get to see it again.

the green flash at sunset and spliting of the horns would both be great to see