FW: A possible satellite observation?
MALEY, PAUL D. (paul.d.maley1@jsc.nasa.gov)
Wed, 4 Aug 1999 06:27:09 -0500
Ed Cannon found an interesting note in the literature and wrote:
> "I stumbled across an article called "A Starlike Glow on the Gibbous
> Moon"
> written by an amateur astronomer. The observation was made this past at
> about
> 4:50 on 26 January UTC (11:50 p.m. on 25 January EST), and the observer
> says
> that the light on the Moon lasted several minutes. Here's the URL of his
> article:
>
> http://www.corvus.com/rz-lunar.htm
>
> His location seems to have been in or near Richmond Township, Rhode
> Island,
> USA, which is at about 41.500N, 71.661W. I checked on high-eccentricity
> objects for that epoch, but I don't have a geosynch elset file for that
> date."
>
This observation seems to be a genuine appulse of the star 5 Tauri which is
acknowledged further in this same article. A star, not a satellite, is the
more likely culprit even without the identification. The description of the
observation in which he describes the long period of time (from a
beginning observer) also lends strong credence to a non satellite source
without the explanation.
Paul
Paul D. Maley
tel. 281-244-0208; fax: 281-244-1140
email: paul.d.maley1@jsc.nasa.gov
latitude 29.6049 north, longitude 95.1086 west, elev 6m