EARTHSHINE OBSERVATION
25 DECEMBER 2003
By
David O. Darling
During the observation I found the earthshine of the crescent Moon to be exceptional. It was one the brightest I have seen in many years. I give the earthshine brightness 5 on a scale from 0 to 5. It was very bright to the naked eye and exceptionally bright in binoculars and my 5" Riches Field Refractor. This photograph taken at 23:49 U.T. 25 December 2003, the exposure time 4 seconds.
Photograph © 2004 by David O. Darling, Director L.T.P. Research
GEOS 10 Photograph Space Science Data Center
When examining the GOES 10 photograph one finds the area where the sub lunar point is located to be free of clouds. So the light reflecting back into space for this time period would be coming directly from the Pacific Ocean.
Earth/Moon Viewer
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html
This image taken from the Earth/Moon viewer shows the appearance of the Earth as seen from the Moon, at the time of the observation. This image will help to determine where the sub lunar point on Earth would be located.
The graph completed by Jan Alvestad Solar Terrestrial Activity Report
The observation took place on evening of 25 December 2003. When searching for possible solar activity correlations one finds that Sunspot number was on a sharp increase just prior to observation. Also the Solar flux was also on the increase the day prior the observation. The Planetary A index was not active at this time.
Conclusion: Several factors appear to correlate with this observation. When looking at the Solar data it appears that increased activity may be a factor. Finding no cloud cover over the Pacific Ocean basin, where the sub lunar point is located may also be a significant factor. Only through continued observation and documentation will we know for certain the true nature of this phenomena.