wpo - the moon
solar
system page Lunar
spectrograph
2003
Oct 16: On 1958 Nov 3 professional
Russian astronomer Kozyrev obtained two spectra of the Alphonsus central
peak and surrounding region that he purported recorded emission lines including
Swan-band [WPO - primarily in blue/green] from assumed lunar activity.
On 2003 Oct 16/17 Dr Tony Cook - BAA/ALPO TLP Co-ordinator, requested co-ordinated observations between 22:58UT-01:41UT when illumination of Alphonsus was identical to that of Kozyrev's original spectra.
My contributing spectra, confined to the red end of the spectrum, include the a and B lines [caused by oxygen/water-vapour in earth's atmosphere] and essentially the Ha [C line] from reflected sunlight illuminating the moon which would probably be present in any surface activity. None was observed as a reversal [turning bright] of the Ha line during an hour of observation as the spectrum frames were downloaded to the PC at 4 frames/minute.
Adjacent spectra is a sampler - the top frame has the partial spectrum of Capella [a Aur] - a G-type spectral star similar to sunlight used to initially calibrate the spectrograph which had a dispersion 3.23A/pixel [res ~10A]; exposure 10s on 30cm SCT. The slightly curved vertical lines are the absorption lines from reflected sunlight. The common horizontal streaks are dust [black] and defects [bright] in the slit - the changing horizontal shading are actual albedo surface features around Alphonsus drifting crossing the slit with time as the telescope is driven at stellar [non-lunar] rate with the slit orientated north/south.
2001 May 3: Revisit
a year later to Mare Smythii via the 30cm f/10 Meade LX200 SCT but this
time with a cheap
£15 video camera intended for home security at <1% cost of
SBIG ST-7 camera - image below! Image captured from video via
a PC TV card. Libration less favourable on this occasion with Mare Smythii
touching
the limb.
2000 May 14: Chance observation
of the gibbous Moon before cloud intervened revealed a favourable view
of the west [classic-right] limb and maria rarely seen from Earth due to
the rocking motion of the Moon i.e. libration . Maximum libration
of 8.5o @ PA 242o occurred here a few hours later.
The image shows a complete, if greatly foreshortened, Mare Smythii
[note bright limb of peaks beyond the mare] and near complete Mare Marginis
immediately north. The Apollo 11 photo shows these features
centred on the Moon's disk.
1998 Feb 3: The colours on the
Moon are very subtle in this SX-C image - Apollo 11 site in Mare Tranquillitatis
above Ariadaeus Cleft. An experimental shot via remote control of the 30cm
Meade LX200 SCT and CCD camera from a pc in my study with cables to the
observatory 120ft away. I still prefer to 'observe' from the observatory
but at least this option is viable.
The moon is a relatively easy target for the CCD camera but for the highest resolution of single craters [much like imaging a planet] good seeing must prevail.
visitors 1082 15/12/05