[sac-forum] More on "Moon Crash" predicted 10:41 pm MST in Phoenix Saturday Night 02 Aug 2006

Here is another good web page with lots of information about the SMART-1 lunar impact.
http://slrea-smart1lunar-impact-project-ing.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately, this URL has NOT been updated since 11 August, but he has very good graphics explaining the impact.

Here is the latest prediction for the SMART-1 lunar impact, predicted to occur at 10:41 pm MST Phoenix time, 2 September 2006 SATURDAY night (that's tonite!!) 

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMV386LARE_0.html

(Evidently the spacecraft orbit has been adjusted so that it would miss hitting a crater rim during the previous orbit on its final low flyover trajectory. The predicted impact should now occur at a time when the impact site is visible in the evening from the western US, but low in the south.)

And here is the European Space Agency web pages with more information:

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=39841

It's doubtful that much will be seen with amateur telescopes....The moon is 
pretty low in the south at the impact event time (for northern 
hemisphere/western US observers).  The conservative predictions suggest that IF 
the impact kicks up a dust plume, and IF the dust rises high enough from the 
lunar surface to be illuminated by sunlight, then something MIGHT be visible.  
The spacecraft is pretty small, and the predicted impact crater will be only a 
few hundred feet in diameter, not big enough to be visible directly in amateur 
telescopes.  The event favors observations with LARGE telescopes in the 
southern hemisphere, esp. at Infrared (IR) wavelengths.

Here is Brian Cudnick's ALPO web pages about the SMART-1 impact, with more 
links and information:
http://www.zone-vx.com/alpo-smartimpact.html

Gene Lucas
(17250)


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