COLOR TOLD TALES
image from Selenology Today
For many years amateur observers of the Moon made sketches and took photos. Other than special interest programs of the ALPO and the BAA there was little scientific analysis of what they saw. The Geological Lunar Research group has changed that. SInce issue #1 of GLR's Selenology Today they have promoted serious scientific investigation of the Moon. Much of the earlier work concerned topographic studies of domes and faults, and more recently they have developed techniques and software for multi-spectral mapping. Now Rick Evans with help by Raf Lena and Christian Wöhler, has published a practical manual so that others can follow their lead in extracting compositional information from Clementine and Selene data. But be warned, spectral mapping requires learning about minerals and rocks whose terminology is baffling until it becomes familiar And the processing of images to deduce compositions requires many careful steps. But this is just the sort of process that many technically exuberant amateurs excel at. Congratulations to Rick, Raf and Christian!
Chuck Wood
A FLASH IN THE NIGHT
ST cover image from Geologic Lunar Research Group
I remember reading a biography of the 19th century geologist Charles Lyell whose scientific articles would often be published within a few days of when he completed writing them. Now it commonly takes 6-12 months for a paper to be peer reviewed and get through the editorial process before being published. But not for Selenology Today, the very high level lunar journal published by the Geologic Lunar Research Group. On Feb 17 GLR released a special issue of ST reporting on simultaneous video observations of a lunar impact flash that occurred Feb 11. This event was observed independently by two people 13 km apart, and the flash appears on 3 to 4 frames of each of their videos. It will be interesting to compare LRO high resolution images of the impact area from before and after the event. Check out the issue for the details.
Chuck Wood
Related Links
NASA's Lunar Impact Monitoring Program
