KAGUYA Impact on the Moon - June 10th 2009


The impact of the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya on the Moon on June 10th 2009 was successfully observed from the Anglo-Australian 3.9m Telescope at Siding Spring, NSW, Australia. The observations used the IRIS-2 infrared camera and were made through a narrow band filter centered at a wavelength of 2.3 micrometres. A series of 1 second exposures were taken with 0.6 seconds dead time between exposures (so 1.6 second cycle time).



The image above shows a sequence of four frames around the impact time, with a bright impact flash visible in the second frame, and faintly seen in the third and fourth. The impact time was approximately UT 18:25:10, within a few seconds of the predicted time. The observers were Jeremy Bailey (UNSW) and Steve Lee (AAO).



This is another version of the second frame of the above sequence, including a wider field, and a different scaling to show the craters in the vicinity.

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   University of New South Wales/Anglo-Australian Observatory (J. Bailey and S. Lee)




Jeremy Bailey - June 11th 2009