Comments on: Fly Me To The Moons

By: Harry Hilders

Harry Hilders — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:04:36 +0000

Glad your work paid off Greg, truly unique story and shots

By: Capturing The Night

Capturing The Night — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 07:55:32 +0000

Hi Jon,
Thank you so much for the great feedback on my work. To be honest the 23:35 time was arrived at by looking at the time stamp on my camera which I know is not truly accurate. I did try and set it to the correct time when I set up the camera, but I certainly would not be surprised if it was a minute or two out now. I would certainly side with the radar times. I am happy to stand corrected and say that the image was taken at or just before 23:33 AEDST. (Must make sure my cameras time stamp is accurate next time……. )
I did not even know that I had captured Ganymede as well. Thanks heaps for pointing that out. I just went a stretched the original file and yes you are right, there is definitely a faint blob right where it should be. There must have been a slither of it right on the limb still. Awesome!
If the second plane did transit the moon then I didn’t see it or capture it on camera. Once Jupiter was fully occulted I stopped taking images until it started to emerge again, and did a few “behind the scenes” wide field images like the one above. It could well have happened during that lull in activity.
Thanks again Jon.

Kind Regards
Greg

By: Jon Seamans

Jon Seamans — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 05:22:58 +0000

Hi Greg,
First, I’d like to say your pictures are great and what a great event to experience! Congratulations on making it to the APOD. I’ve been involved with trying to understand your location and times, and it’s my nature to see things come together like a puzzle. The link that Tony gave is really a great tool that I’ve used to explore everything in more detail.

So, I’ve been plagued by the ~2-minute difference between your listed 23:35 (12:33 UT) time and the flight radar time for the identified flight. After much careful detailed analysis, I believe the time for your picture is actually between 12:32:44 UT and maybe 12:33:00 UT. I have three reasons: 1. Much better agreement with the flight radar, 2. Jupiter’s position to the dark limb is too far away for a 12:35 time, and lastly, in your picture, Ganymede is BARELY visible! As you say, it is occulted, but through diffraction or exposure timing, there is a very faint blob or flare that is exactly in Ganymede’s location! Albeit faint, you did capture Ganymede!! Ganymede’s predicted occultation time for your location was 12:32:39 with 2nd contact happening ≈4.4 seconds later. I conservatively added an additional 16 seconds (~2 Ganymede diameters deeper into the occultation).

Overlapping your picture and ephemeris locations for Jupiter and its satellites shows Ganymede right on the lunar limb! I can’t share these pictures here, but I convinced of the eariler exposure time. I was suspicious of Ganymede’s proximity to the limb when I looked at Jupiter’s location in detail. Everything makes sense.

Oh, I don’t know if you looked, but my calculations say the 2nd plane would have transited the moon too. More towards the top (southern) side. The 2nd plane flew at a lower altitude which compensates for the lower moon position.

Thanks again, and keep up the good work!
Jon

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 09:05:04 +0000

First Para I agree plus “plane crossing the moon in five individual frames just as Jupiter was about to be occulted by The Moon”.
I added a Correction post thanks.Re your earlier P.S no discussion I follow daily a aviation blog called Plane Talking on Crikey.com.au . He had a article on 2 comets with a link to APOD Index saw your entry and here i am.All the best Tony

By: Capturing The Night

Capturing The Night — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 05:25:36 +0000

Image was taken at 23:35 so, yes, that must be the one then. I think that a lot of the times that people were coming up with was based on when Jupiter was occulted by The Moon.
You might be able to edit your post if a certain amount of time has not elapsed, otherwise I would just post another reply if you wish.
Thanks again mate. I think we can finally put that little mystery to rest.

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 04:17:25 +0000

I saw two posts with 1140 and1152 re sydney and when i read your lat/long with no time i presumed ok .You mentioned wnw so i went for 270 to 330 degrees.
The aircraft in front by 12 minutes was VH-YFC Boeing 737-800 on Flight Voz 356 Bris-Melb.
The AC Locations on the adop forum are near identical except the time now 2231 t0 2237 and altitude now 40000down to 33000 .
Is there a way to amend my forum post or would i do a correction if the latter please give me estimate of the time.
A/C speed 13 Km per min .thanks tony

By: Capturing The Night

Capturing The Night — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:51:10 +0000

Thank you very much

By: Capturing The Night

Capturing The Night — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:50:47 +0000

Hi Tony,
Thank you so much for your sleuthing efforts. That radar archive was fascinating to watch and is exactly the sort of thing I was trying to find online. Do you know which plane the one on the same flight path but in front of the Jetstar plane was? My reason for asking is that the Jetstar one might have been a few minutes late to cross the moon at the time of the shot. Jupiter was pretty much behind the moon between the 23:43 and 23:49 time period. My image was taken before Jupiter started to go behind the moon at about 23:34 so the plane before that one might be the one I captured.
Thank you so much again.
Cheers
Greg
P.S. What aviation forum has this been discussed on? I would be interested in reading the discussion.

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:49:00 +0000

G’day Greg

I have just posted a response to your last comment on the APOD Forum which should answer your question.

Low Cost Carriers like Jetstar usually run late at end of day and 60 to 90 minutes being behind Schedule is nothing unusual.

Regards Tony

By: Al

Al — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:32:01 +0000

I did, & I found it. Now that I see it, I am asking myself how I missed it in the 1st place.