@ Phil...ah yes...see what you mean, your points are certainly more precise -- I think I was more interested in the feature that the points were impacting upon....my apologies.

@ ADMIN....my apologies also to you...I wasn't aware that I was abusing the forum, or, that I had received a previous warning before your 'Final warning' issue. I have tried contributing where I thought necessary interest prevailed -- submitting relevant images and comments (all done with respect), however, it appears I am misguided. Might be better if I just observe from now on.

Regards
John
------------
With great power comes greater responsibility...sometimes

John, it's only the 'quote' business that is an issue. When you reply, click on 'add reply' at the bottom of the page instead of the 'quote reply' at the bottom of the specific message.

Phil
(PS I'm not an ADMIN, just offering advice)

The September 5 paper you link to has been superseded by a September 28 release. Based on new data, there are advantages both in certainty of hydrogen signal and viewing geometry for the new site.

"The general consensus of lunar experts led by the LCROSS science team is that Cabeus shows, with the greatest level of certainty, the highest hydrogen concentrations at the south pole. Further consideration of the most current terrain models... was important in the decision process. The models show a small valley in an otherwise tall Cabeus perimeter ridge, which will allow for sunlight to illuminate the ejecta cloud on Oct. 9, and much sooner than previously estimated for Cabeus. While the ejecta does have to fly to higher elevations to be observed by Earth assets, a shadow cast by a large hill along the Cabeus ridge, provides an excellent, high-contrast, back drop for ejecta and vapor measurements."

It's hard to keep these maps up to date! Today's trajectory correction, TCM 9, moved the target 9 km - don't know where yet. See the Flight Director's blog at:

http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/lcrossfdblog/...4770098554.html

Phil

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the new release.

I wouldn't say that there are any advantages to the viewing geometry over Caebus A though -- even with the valley the Earth mask height is still very poor and they didn't specify the actual sun mask height. It might be better than previous, but without a specific figure it could still be a lot worse than Caebus A and a similar backdrop could have as easily been present at the previous crater (Not trying to be argumentative or anything , it's just hard to distill a lot of information from a normal press release).

If it was worse, would they have chosen it? They have far more information than we have.

These are the coords I have now:

Cabeus_impact_Centaur 310.950 -84.770 -3.827 (as of 2009oct03)
Cabeus_impact_SSC 310.450 -84.770 -3.8 (as of 2009oct03)

(values are long, lat, LOLA elevation)

source:

http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_obse...dcfb743944c607f

Phil

They don't have a lot of choice as there aren't a lot of good target craters with an adequate concentration of water and the ones with water don't necessarily have the best geometry. I'm not saying they haven't made the best decision possible, just that it doesn't look like an easy trade-off.

I think you're right. I bet the site selection process looked like it would be a lot easier when the process started.

Phil

impact is Oct 9, 7:30am-ish local time with the sun up here in Boston....don't think I going to see anything (sun rises at 6:50am).
West Coast Amateurs : you are our only hope!


The LCROSS Centaur impact is scheduled for 4:31 a.m. PDT or 7:31 a.m. EDT (11:31 UTC) on October 9, 2009. The sheparding spacecraft will impact at 4:35 a.m. PDT or 7:35 a.m. EDT (11:35 UTC). Mission scientists estimate that the Centaur impact debris plume should be in view several seconds after Centaur impact and will peak in brightness at 30 to 100 seconds after impact.

Lunar Impact Locations
Centaur: -84.675, 311.275 E
Shepherding spacecraft: -84.729, 310.64 E


Time Zone Lighting Conditions for Viewing
Eastern Daybreak will prevent viewing of the debris plumes.
Central Best viewing is West of the Mississippi River.
Mountain Excellent lighting conditions.
Pacific Excellent lighting conditions.
Alaska Excellent lighting conditions.
Hawaii Excellent lighting conditions.


cheers

Ahh, good old Social Media! Lots of entertainment as we await the impact.

The LCROSS Facebook page has been invaded by 'Don't bomb the Moon' types. I can't believe anyone is that stupid, so I am forced to think it's all a joke. They are sitting around laughing at the people who respond seriously, which makes serious responses a waste of time. (Most space hoax stuff is the same, hardly anyone really believes it, especially those at the root of it)

Meanwhile... it's no longer active but there was a very funny - intentionally funny - Fake LCROSS twitter account (you can get to it just by googling 'fake lcross'). Fake LCROSS fretted about his (or her?) impending doom, hoping against hope that the launch would be cancelled due to bad weather or other problems.

Meanwhile, LCROSS proper has been twittering all along, and very well too in my opinion. Very informative posts, good links, and frequent updates. I'm quite impressed with this approach to outreach.

Phil

Well I don't have any decent equipment set up, but I'll put my Canon SLR on a tripod with a 300mm and start firing off the 700 images that fit on the 4G card just prior to the impact and that should take me several minutes down the road, though I seriously doubt anything will be visible at that macro scale. S'pose I could also put my video camera on full zoom which will be similar to the 300mm SLR.

But I'm hoping it will be carried live somewhere. Anyone know if NASA TV has planned a feed of anything useful for that time slot?

I saw this on the NASA link: a list of public viewing opportunities.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/i...vent_index.html

NASA TV will also show it:
LCROSS Lunar Impact
7:31 a.m. EDT/4:31 a.m. PDT
Friday Oct. 9

An approximately 1.5 hour Live NASA TV Broadcast is planned for the LCROSS impacts starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9, on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The broadcast includes:
Live footage from spacecraft camera Real-time telemetry based animation Views of LCROSS Mission and Science Operations Broadcast commentary with expert guests Prepared video segments Views of the public impact viewing event at NASA Ames Possible live footage from the University of Hawaii, 88-inch telescope on Mauna Kea. The live LCROSS Post-Impact News Conference will be 10 a.m. EDT/7 a.m. PDT on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.
It looks like viewing should be good for most of the western USA/Canada. It'll be dark here in Dallas, TX, but right on the edge of dawn... well, with light pollution it's always on the edge of dawn. It'd be nice to head west a bit, like to the party in San Angelo, to get the high contrast sky. I just have a 3.5" Schmidt-Cassi, so I'm torn between trying to watch it live on the web or my toy-scope.

"NASA to Bomb the Moon Friday "
Good god......

"....on a mission to fire a missile into the south pole of the moon that is twice the speed of a bullet..."

nice reporting....

Link.

I found the first sentence the most offensive: "NASA's going for full impact Friday, firing a bomb-laden missile at the moon in a dramatic search for water."

"Bomb-laden"!? What truly awful reporting.

DEFINITELY go watch it! For one thing, if it turns out that the plume WAS visible in a smaller scope, and you missed it cos you didn't even try, you will never forgive yourself. Also, even if you don't see anything you can still look back in years to come and enjoy the fact that you were watching the Moon at the time of the impact, which is quite historic, right? You can watch re-runs of anything picked up by biggers scopes afterwards.

Okay, I'm convinced. Gonna dust off the ol' NexStar 8 & go for it!

Frankly, I'm more concerned about it being washed out by the high-phase Moonshine; if it was @ a quarter or less, I'd be more confident about catching it. Guessing that this particular geometry offers better forecasted plume illumination for the spacecraft?

I suspect it won't be up to Gervase of Canterbury's report from 1178:





Andy

A far far better report. Good to see media coverage.

Link

I can't watch video at work so I'll have to do with this.

KSC still.

LCROSS audio briefing HERE.

Wonder if there are any flyover movies (or sequence of views) that illustrate both the zenith view and the Earth perspective in a way that transitions from one to the other? I may try with Celestia using a relatively hi-res map.

Click to view attachment



Phil

AAACKKK!!!! I thought he was gonna drop out of the public eye & re-evaluate himself, but noooo....

(Killer, Phil! )

Here's a crude attempt at animating the lunar perspective with Celestia. It rotates from the Earth view to a more zenithal view over the impact site. The site is marked with a faint yellow paintbrush stroke if you look carefully.

http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/lcross.avi

Steve

I sent an e-mail, don't know if others did also.
The title still stands but the line I found most offensive has been changed.

From:
"NASA's going for full impact Friday, firing a bomb-laden missile at the moon in a dramatic search for water."

To:
"NASA's going for full impact Friday, firing a missile at the moon in a dramatic search for water."


The sub-title may also have been changed, I can't remember what it was.

LCROSS- Centaur separation succesful!!!

Starting new thread...