Sky at Night Magazine

[petrolight]

Hi guy's,
Don't know if you've seen this yet but SMART-1 is going to
end its life by crashing into the moon! Details found at link.
[url=http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0607/24smart1/]http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0607/24smart1/[/url]

[s_hawkins]

Cool [:D] Will it be visible to observe?

[les]

HI Sam,
I think Im right in saying that the crash may be visible with amatuar equipment but the Moon will be badly placed from Britain.[:@]
Regards Les

[s_hawkins]

[:@] Great!

[albireo]

THe website gives the time as 0541 GMT (1:41 a.m. EDT) on September 3 which means the sky will be quite bright. However it also says that "this time is only certain within seven hours". For me (GMT +2) the moon sets at 0h04m on the 3rd and rises again at 16h42m on the 3rd, so I have practically no chance.

[jjdemery]

It will probably be cloudy anyway! It always is when a 'one off' happens!

Jonathan

[s_hawkins]

[:@] True...Clouds ruined my shot for 2004/05/06 perseids! I've never seen the perseids before! [:(]

Clear Skies,

[jjdemery]

According to Metcheck (If you believe them!) I will have 42% cloud cover then so maybe worth a look - fingers crossed!

Jonathan

[s_hawkins]

[quote]ORIGINAL: jjdemery

According to Metcheck (If you believe them!) I will have 42% cloud cover then so maybe worth a look - fingers crossed!

Jonathan
[/quote]

[:D] LOL! - I decided to check the weather for my location and it's 50-50.

50% cloud cover - Let's just hope that the clouds decide to take a day off. [;)]

Fingers crossed 'ere too

[jjdemery]

Theres an excellent article about the impact and other previous impacts in the September issue of Astronomy Now.

Jonathan