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Front Row Seats To NASA's Lunar Impact

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wait-that-is-a-moon dept.

itwbennett writes "Tomorrow morning at 7:30 EDT, NASA is going to crash a probe into the moon as part of its LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission, the main purpose of which is to discover if there's any water on the moon. 'If you happen to have a 10-12" telescope (or larger) then you might be able to see the plume from your backyard,' says blogger Peter Smith. 'For the rest of us, the impact will be streamed live over the web in a few places. NASA will have a feed, beginning at 6:15 EDT. The NASA feed includes live footage from the spacecraft itself as well as expert commentary and other goodies. Astronomy service SLOOH is offering a double-shot of earth-bound feeds, with one feed from New Hampshire and the other from Arizona. The SLOOH feeds start at 6:30 am EDT.'" Update: Matt_dk adds a link to a viewing guide to the impact, writing that "Amateur astronomers need a 10-inch or bigger telescope to make observations."

6 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. LCROSS Observation page by aembleton · · Score: 5, Informative

    NASA have set up a webpage for the LCROSS Observation Campaign: http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/observation.htm

    By the way, it is at 11.30 UTC for those who don't know how far their timezone is from EDT.

  2. Lunarian race ... by Tanks*Guns · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a pretty safe bet that the impact of the Centaur module will awaken some ancient lunarian race which will immediately begin waging a campaign to subjugate Earth once and for all, so it would behoove you to watch one of these feeds in order to be prepared for the inevitable.

    Flash!!! ... GORDON .....

    1. Re:Lunarian race ... by alexj33 · · Score: 4, Funny

      >> Flash!!!! AA-aaaaah......

      There, fixed that for you.

  3. More NasaTV feeds by agentgonzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    NasaTV Feeds at different resolutions:
    100k/s, 320/240
    200k/s, 320/240
    500k/s, 480x360 (I think)
    100k/s, 640/480
    All Windows Media format

    Real media format
    Quicktime
    For those of you who need to watch it in absolute realtime, I've found that all the yahoo feeds (windows media) whilst being the best video quality are generally about 1-2 minutes behind realtime. Realmedia is normally about 5-10 seconds behind realtime.

  4. Re:Robots by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe it is because of the extremely low temperature at the moon's poles and that any robotic being would not survive. I also understand that any water ice exposed to the sun on the moon would almost instantly sublimate, so I guess that an impact lifting tons of moon regolith is the most logical step in seeing water ice for a short moment, right before it sublimates because of the sun's energy it will be exposed to.

  5. It is a conspiracy, by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny
    It is a deliberate underhanded attempt by NASA to deny the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who survive by peddling the NASA moon landing conspiracy theories. NASA tries to prove beyond doubt, and create thousands of eye witnesses of NASA's ability to actually send a rocket all the way to the moon. This must be stopped. Wait. I am getting a late feed from Conspiracy Central.

    ...

    Looks like NASA has launched a large white glass plate and placed it in near earth orbit. It is sitting exactly in the line of sight from Earth to moon. People normally see through this the real Moon. But at the appointed time, NASA will project an image using lasers and create an illusion of a spacecraft crashing into moon, and then turn off the projection. Ha, haa, NASA, we got you. We got you all figured it out. Your jig is up. We will not be denied our meal ticket no matter what you do.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact