[AZ-Observing] Re: Young Moon Sighting

Andrew;

Good job, I have seen a dozen or so moons less than 24 hours old, usually
because either Pierre or Joe Orman told me to look for them, I have rarely
sought them out.  Of course, the real reason is that there is very little
else to do during that time of twilight, so looking for a thin moon is
something to do while waiting for it to get dark.  AND, they are pretty
neat.  I think my personal record is something like 16 hours old from
Sentinel, about 10 years ago.  

Glad to hear that you had fun;
Steve Coe


-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andrew Cooper
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 8:59 PM
To: AZ-Observing; TAAA Forum
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Young Moon Sighting



I had alway wanted to try for a personal record of the youngest moon 
possible so I gladly joined John Polachek and a small group he had 
arranged in an attempt this evening.  John is a TAAA member and has 
regularly attempted young and old moon sightings.

We met at Gate's Pass outside of Tucson at 1800 and enjoyed a good 
conversation and story swapping waiting for sunset.  I had brought the 
Nexstar 11" thinking we would use the computer to aid us, but a slight 
miscaculation meant we couldn't set up in the viewpoint but had to walk 
out one of the rough trails to get a good view of where the moon would 
hit the horizon.  I wasn't about to lug a 65lb optical assembly out that 
trail.  So that left binoculars.

The sighting was complicated by layers of distant haze above the horizon 
but greatly aided by the presence of Venus 3.5 degrees from the Moon's 
position.

We were successful in spotting the Moon!  I spotted it first and my 
description allowed the others to quickly locate the razor thin cresent 
hanging between layers of haze.  For the next ten minutes we could track 
the moon easily as it appeared and dissapeared in the haze.  Optical aid 
was necessary, maybe an unaided spotting could be done without the haze, 
but it would have required great eyesight.  I used my 9x63 Orion 
binoculars.  Higher elevation would also certainly help as the sky would 
be darker near the horizon.   I did regret not having the telescope 
because I may have been able to photograph the sliver of moon.

This puts my personal record at a lunar age of 17h50m and a 0.66% 
illuminated moon. Given a better location or better conditions we could 
have easily spotted a younger moon.  How much younger I don't know, I'll 
have to try this again sometime.

Andrew

----------------------------------
Andrew Cooper
http://www.siowl.com


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