Aircraft on the Moon? Whats the chances of that?

We'll actually the chances are quite good, since it happens more frequebtly than one thinks, especially if you live within 50 miles of any airport.

Yes, it is a real unaltered image, It happened by chance.


It was captured back in 1994 from my friends backyard in Berkley, Michigan. I used my old Sony camcorder to record Moon craters and the Appenine Mt. region on the Moon.

Suddenly,
I saw a big dark blurr go through the view finder, I looked up and realized I had captured an aircraft on footage. This is 4 single frames stacked to knock down the noise from a single 1/30 sec video frame.

After my buddy Barry did some calculations on the wing span of a 747, and the size of the known craters visible, accounting for the moons distance on average that day, the aircarft was at ~38,000 ft. when it passed in front of the moon.

Usually aircraft ruin my long time exposures of deep space by leaving blinking light trails, but this shot was faster than the blinking lights and came out pretty cool!

Attached Images

jetmoon.jpg (68.4 KB, 10 views)

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Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Ya, that's a pretty cool image John

Really nice coincidence that photo.

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Of all the things I've ever lost, I miss my mind the most!

VERY cool image! You should submit that with your explanation to Astronomy or Sky and Telescope as they would very probably publish it.

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Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him. ~Albert Einstein~

Hi Duane,

thanks for the compliment,

Actually I did send them both it many years ago,

As Astronomy and S&T have published dozens of my images over the years,
but this one never made the magazine back in 94. Maybe I'll send it again to the new editors, as they do change photo editors every few years.


You can see my latest image in Astronomy Magazine in the article about Einstein page 50, its Sirius the Brightest Star in the sky, 30 minute exposure, 100 ISO Kodak Royal Gold Film.

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Wow, what an incredible shot. It deserves to be published somewhere! Thanks for sharing!

Yes, thanks for sharing that great, once in a lifetime shot! Please, don't hesitate to share some more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great Shot!
You Should submit it to some other astronomy websites. Do you mind if I put that photo on my website. Its not published to the web yet but its coming along.

VERY COOL image, friend!
That's an amazing coincidence: what are the chances for that to happen, so far?? very little, I think, jejeje B)
Thanks for sharing it!

What a lucky pic to get ~ nice one mate

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