Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 11:44:27 -0700
To: Joan and David Dunham 
From: "Frank A. L. Anet" 
Subject: More possible lunar meteor impacts , Saturday and Monday
Cc: Brian Cudnik 

As an addendum to our " Preliminary report of possible lunar meteor 
impact", we have now spotted a second flash at 4 hr 22 min 26.63 sec 
UTC on May 7 (Saturday, PDT) near Mare Nectaris. This was also quite 
bright.

On Monday, May 8 (PDT), we observed for about 2 hr and have only 
looked at the data briefly and we did not observe all the data as it 
was being recorded.The sky was free of large clouds but there were 
some glare around the Moon and the usual light pollution, but the 
temperature was a pleasant 55 F. A star of magnitude 9.9 was just 
visible half-way through the observation period. We did observe one 
flash in real time, and examination of the recorded data showed a 
cluster of 5 close-by flashes in a single field of a single frame in 
Mare Imbrium near the Archimedes crater at about 5 hr 4 min 26 sec, 
May 9, UTC (plus or minus a second or so, exact time available 
later).The two strongest flashes are roughly of magnitude 6 and the 
flashes are not randomly placed but form a somewhat distorted arc. 
The separation are about 45, 50, 15, and 30 arc-seconds (roughly 
twice these numbers for distance on the Moon in km, I think). By the 
way, one pixel in my system is about 1.3 arc-second. Since the 
eta-Aquarids have a speed of about 65 km/sec and all the impacts 
occurred within 1/60 second, the meteors must have hit nearly 
directly overhead on the Moon.

It would be interesting if anyone else observed this possible meteor 
impact cluster on the Moon. At the time, the Moon's altitude was 
about 23 degrees, so other observers on the West Coast could easily 
have observed this impact.

Frank and Ragini Anet
Anet@chem.ucla.edu
26378 Woodlark Lane
Valencia, CA 91355
Phone: (661) 799-9355