MOON GLOWS

L.T.P. EVENT?

18 JULY 1979

03:30 TO 10:00 UT

BY

DAVID O. DARLING

I had decided to get up early to study the earthshine region of the Moon since during the last two months I have seen  crater Aristarchus glowing in it.. This aspect of the Moon with being 24 days old would allow me to see a totally new area of the Moon during earthshine. I had set up my 12.5 f 5 Newtonian reflector at 2:30 A.M. CDT local time or 07:30 UT to begin my morning observation. I used a 25mm eyepiece which gave me a excellent view of the lunar disk. I examined the earthshine region by moving the illuminated portion of the Moon out of the field of view.

I had first begun my observing session by studying the crater Copernicus. The sunset terminator was just in beginning to cross this magnificent formation making it a dramatic sight. I then panned my telescope into the earthshine region of the Moon and started to get my eyes dark adapted. It sounds kind of silly saying I needed to get my eyes dark adapted when viewing the Moon but it is true. The earthshine region of the Moon is a totally different world in itself. The faint ashen light being reflected from Earth makes the lunar landscape look even more alien.

It was at 08:30 UT that I detected that two craters Menelaus,  Manilius, and Plinius were glowing in the Earthshine.  (See #1)  Also the a spot was glowing near the crater Censorinus. (See #2)  At 08:41 UT two glowing spots appeared west of Mare Crisium and I believed one was the crater Proclus. (See #3) At 08:56 UT a third spot appeared with this group and then disappeared again at 09:06 UT. (See #3a)

Glow #4 first appeared at 08:50 UT as a bright pinpoint flash that lasted only for a brief moment of time and then the glowing patch got brighter. Also at this time spot # 5 became brighter after a brief flash in it and then as minutes passed the patch became more diffused and fainter. At  09:25 UT two glowing patches appeared at #6, and they were no brighter than the other glowing patches, and they diminished in brightness to the point of invisibility at 9:40 UT.

During the whole observing session I observed thirteen glowing patches, blue in color with many of them having brief flare ups. The small intense burst of light I saw went off in the center of the blue patches. It was really interesting watching all these different patches pulsating at different rates and seeing within these patches the bright flash. After the flash one could see the glow patch brighten from the center out as if a ball of gas was being detonated from it's center where it would be most concentrated. The most active area was around the Mare Crisium with six glowing patches visible at one time, and with at least ten bright flashes seen in the center of the glows. The second most active area with the brightest patches was Mare Vaporum 

SOLAR TERRESTRIAL ACTIVITY REPORT

When examining the solar data for that date there was some increased Planetary A but the Sunspot numbers and Solar flux were both on a decline.