Help Aldebaran Map the Moon
Credit and Copyright:
F. B. Catala
Turn on your camcorder, go outside, and become an astronomer.
How?.
Tomorrow morning, our
Moon will pass directly in front of
Aldebaran, the brightest star in this picture and in
entire constellation of Taurus.
Aldebaran
is visible to the left and below
Comet
Hale-Bopp in the
above photograph,
which was taken on April 30th in
Tenerife, Spain.
This occultation is valuable because
disappearance
times from
different locations can be used to map the height of the
lunar terrain
at the occultation points. You can help by
clicking here,
where a site will detail how to tape a familiar cable channel and then
take your still-running
camcorder
outside to tape the occultation of Aldebaran by the Moon. You can then donate your VCR tape
to science by mailing it to
this address.
Leave yourself
plenty of time
for a practice run and be sure to check the weather
before going to a lot of trouble!