Okay... what am I seeing on the moon?

Look at the area tomorrow and determine the peaks. Twin peaks


Ah - Laura Palmer's peaks.



Laura likes pot! http://owls.blogspot.com/

On 2004-09-22, Scott Lowther wrote:


Scott Lowther wrote:

I'm extremely amateur, but I saw something a little surprising tonight
(between 8:40 and 8:50 PM mountain time) Looking at the moon through my
Celestron, there were two very bright white spots jsut *behind* the
terminator in Palus Nebularum. Tried taking some photos, but as my setup
is jamming a digital camera in the eyepeice, the results were
disappointing. The spots did not move over ten minutes. Changing the
eyepiece up and down in magnification did not get rid of them.A little
help?

I found a few photos that do show the lights. I've posted a 50% version of
the full photo and a cropped, unscaled version he
http://up-ship.com//Stuff/the-hell-1.jpg
http://up-ship.com//Stuff/the-hell-2.jpg

The spots don't look terribly interesting on camera, but there sure do in
real life...

Mountain peaks - same principle that lets you see orbiting satellites in
the morning & evening, as the peaks are in sunlight whilst the area
below them is shadowed. If you look at the bottom of the first picture,
you can see a third one just past the edge of a crater...

It might be instructive to compare them to the solitary mountain just to
the left of the pair, which I think is Mt. Piton; a good example of a
half-shadowed mountain.

(If I had an atlas to hand I'd look up the site for you, but sadly I
don't - some poking suggests one is Mt Pico?)


--
-Andrew Gray

Atm ) wrote:

:
:
: Look at the area tomorrow and determine the peaks. Twin peaks
:
:
: Ah - Laura Palmer's peaks.
:


: Laura likes pot! http://owls.blogspot.com/


Who calls a joint of pot a "marijuana cigarette"? Beyond belief for even
the straightest person.

Eric

Those usually are mountain tops still in sunlight.

Saul Levy


On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 03:08:35 GMT, Scott Lowther
wrote:

I'm extremely amateur, but I saw something a little surprising tonight
(between 8:40 and 8:50 PM mountain time) Looking at the moon through my
Celestron, there were two very bright white spots jsut *behind* the
terminator in Palus Nebularum. Tried taking some photos, but as my setup
is jamming a digital camera in the eyepeice, the results were
disappointing. The spots did not move over ten minutes. Changing the
eyepiece up and down in magnification did not get rid of them.A little
help?

["Followup-To:" header set to sci.space.policy.]
On 2004-09-22, CeeBee wrote:
Andrew Gray wrote in sci.astro:

Mountain peaks - same principle that lets you see orbiting satellites
in the morning & evening, as the peaks are in sunlight whilst the area
below them is shadowed.

I'll tell you there's no need for a comparison with satellites
orbiting the earth. Each top of an appartment building is the first in
the morning to receive sunlight, while the grass or street in between is
still in deep shadow.

See, those of us living in nice sensible cities with bugger-all over
four storeys tend to forget what it's like out there... ;-)

--
-Andrew Gray

"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
...

"Christopher M. Jones" wrote in message
...
Scott Lowther wrote:
Scott Lowther wrote:

I'm extremely amateur, but I saw something a little surprising tonight
(between 8:40 and 8:50 PM mountain time) Looking at the moon through my
Celestron, there were two very bright white spots jsut *behind* the
terminator in Palus Nebularum. Tried taking some photos, but as my setup
is jamming a digital camera in the eyepeice, the results were
disappointing. The spots did not move over ten minutes. Changing the
eyepiece up and down in magnification did not get rid of them.A little
help?

I found a few photos that do show the lights. I've posted a 50% version
of
the full photo and a cropped, unscaled version he
http://up-ship.com//Stuff/the-hell-1.jpg
http://up-ship.com//Stuff/the-hell-2.jpg

The spots don't look terribly interesting on camera, but there sure do
in
real life...

Those look like peaks of the other side of the jagged crater
rim which are tall enough to be illuminated though their
bases are not.

I was about to say the same.




I saw the same thing several years ago with my 10' Meade.
I was looking at the terminator when suddenly a single
light appeared just in the dark side. Wow! As I continued
watching another light appeared alongside. What the heck!

So I got out my map of the moon and found two peaks
at the same place as the lights. It seems I'd managed to
catch the scene just as the tips of the peaks became
illuminated one after the other.

That was perhaps one of my most memorable moments
under the stars.

S

"Scott Lowther" wrote in message
...
I'm extremely amateur, but I saw something a little surprising tonight
(between 8:40 and 8:50 PM mountain time) Looking at the moon through my
Celestron, there were two very bright white spots jsut *behind* the
terminator in Palus Nebularum. Tried taking some photos, but as my setup
is jamming a digital camera in the eyepeice, the results were
disappointing. The spots did not move over ten minutes. Changing the
eyepiece up and down in magnification did not get rid of them.A little
help?


Tonight I viewed what you saw and they are 2 magnificently high, triangular
mountains.
The shadows cast by them indicated this. I do not know the names of them.
I know them now
as the twin peaks.

Who calls a joint of pot a "marijuana cigarette"? Beyond belief for even
the straightest person.

Eric

Actually that is grammatically correct. It is a cigarette composed of
marijuana, hence marijuana cigarette.
Marijuana is obviously latino or spanish. Mary Jane is some wack job
description that probably was devised
by the "beat nik" community in the earlier '60's . "Hey cool daddy, how
'bout some Mary Jane".