[AZ-Observing] Re: By The Light of The Southerly Moon

  • From: "Rick Tejera" <saguaroastro@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 18:33:33 -0700

I suppose this is what fascinates us about this hobby, Even in the
commonplace, one can find the unusual. Ain't orbital mechanics grand?

Clear Skies

Rick Tejera
Editor SACnews
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona
saguaroastro@xxxxxxx
www.saguaroastro.org

-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Coe
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:42 PM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: By The Light of The Southerly Moon

Tom and Brian;

I have had two times in the last month were the position of the Moon =
seemed
quite far from the ecliptic.  The first was last night; the Moon rarely
shines directly into the south-facing glass doors on my house.  I got up
from the computer to fix a sandwich at about 11PM and noticed a LOT of
moonshine through those windows.  When I let the dog into the backyard =
it
was also immediately obvious how low the Moon was--near the palm trees =
in my
neighbor's yard.

The other instance was having the crescent Moon near the zenith for a =
public
viewing session about 10 days ago.  That is also an unusual position for =
the
Moon to be located at during that phase.

Ain't that weird?
Steve Coe


-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Polakis
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 1:15 PM
To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] By The Light of The Southerly Moon

During the past few mornings, the waning moon has been shining in the =
south
windows of our house.  It seemed like it was really far south, =
especially as
I was watching it set over the Estrellas this morning.  It turns out =
that it
is about as far south as it gets.

I plugged a time range into the JPL Horizons Ephemeris Generator
(http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.html).  It shows the moon reaching a
declination as southerly as -29d 11' tomorrow at 4 a.m., when it will =
also
be due south.  This is more than 5 1/2 degrees farther south than the =
sun's
Winter Solstice declination.

What this means to weekend observers is that we will have a Last Quarter
moon that waits until 2 a.m. to rise on Sunday morning.

Tom

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