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 -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and = please=20 send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.