“If I only had a camera.” How many times have you heard or said that? Last night my son visited with his new digital SLR camera. Still learning to use it, he took it out on the deck and aimed it at the moon and snapped a few. Within a few minutes he had it figured and was getting pretty cool pics of La Luna. So I say, “Hey, there’s an airplane headed toward the moon.” It was on the other side of the sky and I know, as an astronomer, that it would be extraordinarily unlikely to actually pass over the moon from our vantage. So he keeps snapping and I keep watching and repeating, “It’s still headed toward the moon...still...I think it will cross it!” Mark is cool and has the cam preset and looks up at the plane – and snaps the shutter holding the camera but looking directly at the sky and triggers the shutter right as it indeed crosses the face. I did some analysis in the image and come up with: >timing accurate to 0.25 sec (vs closest approach of plane center to moon center). >plane range 21.3 mi. All sorts of other parametrics which I won’t bore you with. But conclusions include: >Mark is cool – no wonder he is so good with pistol, rifle, machine gun and snare drum. >We were extraordinarily lucky to even have this event occur. “If I only had a camera.” ... and he did! Tom SEE PICTURES >>>
© 2010 Thomas Dey - 11/24/10
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large image PLANE CROSSING FACE OF MOON |
large image SOME CONSTRUCTION LINES |