Dave Mitsky
04-March-2005, 11:51 AM
After a long and very chilly night of imaging with my Canon 300D DSLR, I caught the Pitatus Sunrise Lunar Ray shortly before 6:00 a.m. EST (11:00 UT) through the ASH 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 162 (40mm University Optics MK-70) and 259x (25mm Celestron orthoscopic). What I saw was a triangular shaft of light that entered Pitatus from the adjoining crater Hesiodus.
A 1996 Sky & Telescope article on the sunrise ray in Hesiodus was responsible for reacquainting modern observers with the phenomena of lunar light rays.
This apparition of the Pitatus ray occurred ahead of the time predicted at http://www.lunar-occultations.com/rlo/rays/rays.htm
Dave Mitsky
A 1996 Sky & Telescope article on the sunrise ray in Hesiodus was responsible for reacquainting modern observers with the phenomena of lunar light rays.
This apparition of the Pitatus ray occurred ahead of the time predicted at http://www.lunar-occultations.com/rlo/rays/rays.htm
Dave Mitsky