First Announcement of Confirmed Lunar Impact - Nov. 19

Brian Cudnik in Houston, Texas, was watching the dark side of the Moon late Wednesday night with a 14-inch telescope and saw a brief bright flash at "about 10:46:20 pm CST" near the center of the dark side, a short distance in from its edge. At the same time, I was videorecording the dark side of the Moon using a 5-inch telescope at Mount Airy, Maryland. Sure enough, when I played back the tape, the event is there in the location described, at 11:46:15 pm EST (= 10:46:15 pm CST = 4:46:15 of Nov 18 UT). The meteor was probably a Leonid, since the main part of the Leonid meteor stream struck the Earth at 9 pm EST, and with the Moon trailing the Earth, the Moon would have crossed the thick part of the stream 2-3 hours later. About an hour before, I recorded 5 occultation disappearances of 8th and 9th magnitude stars. Analysis of those images will allow a better determination of the flash magnitude and location.