<strong>BAA</strong>/ALPO TRANSIENT LUNAR PHENOMENA6Tony CookObservations for January <strong>2008</strong> were received from the following observers: Jay Albert (FL, USA), Clive Brook (Plymouth,UK), Maurice Collins (New Zealand) and Marie Cook (Mundesley, UK). I was particularly interested in Jay Albert’s description ofthe Teneriffe Mountain range on <strong>2008</strong> Jan 16. He was observing at his local astronomy club with the fifth grade at a local school: “At01:20, I saw two peaks illuminated within the shadow of the night side past the terminator. Both were very bright, but the more S peakhad a brilliant, yellow, flame-like point that was quite beautiful. It was so impressive at 188x, that the kids and even the adults whosaw it oohed and aahd and called their friends over to see it”. He used a 6” Celestron Nexstar telescope at x188 with seeing at 6/10.<strong>No</strong>w compare this with an original TLP report by Hart and others from Glasgow Scotland from 1854 Dec 27 UT 18:00-23:00 (10”reflector) made under very similar illumination conditions: “Two luminous fiery spots on bright side on either side of a ridge,contrasting color. Seemed to be two active volcanoes. Ridge was normal color. Spots were yellow or flame color. Never seen beforein 40 years. of observing." In the Cameron TLP catalog from 1978, the original 1854 report (Catalog ID #129) was given a high weightof a 4. Perhaps because it was seen by an experienced observer and others, and perhaps also because the report just sounds genuine.However Jay Albert’s observation from January this year describes something very similar, although only one of the spots wasapparently yellow this time. So my best guess is that the peaks concerned just had slopes that were catching the sunlight and so werenaturally bright. Timing and viewing angle effects can make a lot of difference to how the peaks appear. Other peaks such as Piton andPico can exhibit similar brilliance. Maybe atmospheric flaring effects in our atmosphere were to blame for the colour seen on bothoccasions? – I sometimes see similar effects when looking at bright but small planetary disks or stars.In <strong>March</strong> I plan to attend the 39 th <strong>Lunar</strong> and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Houston (League City), Texas. I willhope to keep you informed of any recent developments in TLP. I know for a fact that Prof. Arlin Crotts will be presenting some resultsof his robotic telescope TLP network and his plans for future multispectral imaging of the lunar surface, looking for permanent signsof changes to surface colour. I also note that at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) conference in Vienna in April there will beone or possibly two abstracts on TLP. At EGU there is also a paper on the LEO satellite by the German Aerospace agency that in 2012will fly within 50km of the lunar surface mapping the whole of the Mon’s surface to better than 1m resolution – it will also be lookingfor impact flashes with a specially designed high time resolution camera. I will let you know in the next TLP article about what wassaid at LPSC, and a month later what was discussed at EGU. You may be able to preview the abstracts by going to the respectiveconference web sites on:http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc<strong>2008</strong>/pdf/program.pdfhttp://meetings.copernicus.org/egu<strong>2008</strong>Below is a list of repeat conditions for when a feature will exhibit the same illumination and libration as was seen for ahistorical TLP observation from the past. By re-observing and submitting your observations, we will get a clear understanding of whatthe feature ought to have looked like at the time. Only this way can we really fully analyse past TLP reports. I have also included someEarthshine observing sessions.If you have never attempted some of these repeat illumination/librartion events before, please do have a go this month as thereare lots on and we stand a very good chance to learn about the normal appearance of these features from which we can compare withthe original TLP reports. In particular Mar 20/21, Mar 23 (early in the morning), and the famous Alphonsus Kozyrev TLP on themorning of Mar 28 th . The latter is especially important because the tidal stresses on the Moon from the gravitational pull of the Earthand the Sun will be very similar to that back in 1959 and if the gas release that Kozyrev observed were due to the tides then there is aslight chance that this may re-occur. I say a “slight chance” because so far predictions of repeats of coloured TLP have had a lowsuccess rate and the tidal stress explanation for release of gases within the Moon is still only a theory – but we should at least try andfor that I need your aqssistance!.Event: Look for sporadic impact flashes in Earthshine: <strong>2008</strong> Mar 10 (18:38-19:54) - [<strong>Lunar</strong> phase 12]Event: Look for sporadic impact flashes in Earthshine: <strong>2008</strong> Mar 11 (18:40-21:17) - [<strong>Lunar</strong> phase 21%]Event: Look for sporadic impact flashes in Earthshine: <strong>2008</strong> Mar 12 (18:42-22:37) - [<strong>Lunar</strong> phase 32%]Event: Censorinus (observed by Nicolini, 1970 Apr 12) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 13 (18:04-20:43) - [Draw orimage]Event: Cyrillus (observed by Lookes, 1970 Apr 12) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar113 (18:10-20:<strong>45</strong>) - [Draw or image]Event: Look for sporadic impact flashes in Earthshine: <strong>2008</strong> Mar 13 (18:43-23:49) - [<strong>Lunar</strong> phase 44%]Event: Mare Nubium (observed by Lookes, 1970 Apr 12) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 13 (18:10-20:<strong>45</strong>) - [Draw orimage]Event: Alphonsus (observed by Harris, 1966 Jun 26) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 15 (01:39-02:48) - [Check centralpeak for colour]Event: Piton (observed by Fornarucci, 1972 Feb 23) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 15 (18:08-18:15) - [sketch or imagethe area to the west of this mountain]Event: Aristarchus (observed by Theiss, 1973 Feb 15) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 20 (02:06-04:57) – [Look forcolour in or around the crater]Event: Aristarchus (observed by Livesey, 1996 Oct 25) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 20/21 (19:50-00:33) - [Look forcolour in or around the crater – could it be spurious colour?]Event: Gauss (observed by Chilton, 1967 Sep 18) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 21/22 (23:21-02:00) - [Observe thewest wall through a Polaroid filter – does it look different if you rotate the filter?]
LIBRATION FOR APRIL <strong>2008</strong>LibrationDate amountø PAøFeaturepresented1.0 7.0 64 Bartels2.0 6.9 76 Mees3.0 6.7 89 Hedin4.0 6.5 102 Maunder5.0 6.1 117 Pettit6.0 5.9 134 Baade*7.0 5.7 153 Phocylides*8.0 5.7 171 Klaproth*9.0 5.8 188 Boguslawsky*10.0 6.0 204 Gill11.0 6.1 219 Lyot12.0 6.2 232 Gum13.0 6.1 246 Hecataeus14.0 6.0 260 Brunner15.0 6.0 275 Babcock16.0 6.1 289 Al-Biruni17.0 6.3 303 Hahn18.0 6.6 315 Boss19.0 6.9 325 Chevallier20.0 7.2 335 De la Rue21.0 7.4 344 Schwabe22.0 7.4 353 Euctemon23.0 7.3 2 Anaxagoras24.0 7.2 12 Poncelet25.0 7.0 23 Pythagoras26.0 6.9 35 <strong>Vol</strong>ta27.0 6.9 48 Bunsen28.0 7.1 61 Voskresenskiy29.0 7.3 74 Vasco da Gama30.0 7.4 85 OlbersProgram by Bob Roberts.Observer at: Lat. 51.0øN, Long. 1.0øW* indicates that the feature is not illuminated.From page 6Event: Agrippa (observed by Bartlett, 1966 Jul 03) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 22 (04:23-05:17) - [How bright isthe central peak and can you see a white spot on the summit?]Event: Agrippa (observed by Bartlett, 1966 Jul 04) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 23 (02:01-05:25) - [How bright isthe central peak?]Event: Aristarchus (observed by Foley, 1975 Feb 27; Bartlett 1966 Jul 04; Moore 1969 Jun 30) can be seen on/from (UT):<strong>2008</strong> Mar 23 (02:15-05:25) – [Look for colour and obscurations]Event: Alphonsus (observed by Kozyrev, 1959 Oct 23) can be seen on/from (UT): <strong>2008</strong> Mar 28 (05:26-05:56) - [Look forevidence of red or other oolours on the central peak – if anybody has access to a spectrograph, please use this to support visiaulobservations made by other observers]Further predictions, including the more numerous illumination only events can be found on the following web site:http://users.aber.ac.uk/atc/tlp/tlp.htm . For members who do not have access to the internet, please drop me a line and I willpost predictions to you. If you would like to join the TLP telephone alert team, please let me know your phone <strong>No</strong>. and how late youwish to be contacted. If in the unlikely event you see a TLP, please give me a call on my cell phone: +44 (0)798 505 5681 and I willalert other observers. <strong>No</strong>te when telephoning from outside the UK you must not use the (0). When phoning from within the UK pleasedo not use the +44!Dr Anthony Cook, Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Wales Aberystwyth, Penglais, Aberystwyth,Ceredigion, SY23 3BZ, WALES, UNITED KINGDOM. Email: atc @ aber.ac.uk7
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