The Moon's Parallax

Some project day impressions and pictures of our participants

Alfter, Germany

"Lieber Herr Backhaus,
wider Erwarten war es möglich, von Alfter aus Mond, Saturn, Regulus und einige weitere Sterne im Löwen zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten und auch pünktlich um 22:00 UT (24:00 MESZ) zu fotografieren. Der Trick mit der Abschwächung des Mondes durch zwei Polfilter hat funktioniert, hoffentlich sind die Positionsdaten sinnvoll auswertbar; aber das wird sich erst morgen früh erweisen.
Mit herzlichen Grüßen
Joachim Wallasch"

Amman, Jordanian Astronomical Society

"Dear Sir ,
many thanx for your great efforts in this global activity which means that we all live on the same planet ! : )
Here in Jordan , we announced for public about our stargazing and some photographers will share us the experiment of " measuring the distance to the Moon " ... Some people wonder how can we do that ? !
We chose a famous touristic site " a Roman Castle in the capital of Jordan / Amman). Our sky is clear as we hope ( inshallah ) and our members of the Jordanian Astronomical Society are ready for the event which will be on 8 pm ( our local time ).
It is a chance to observe Saturn bu telescope too and to spend a nice Summer night .
See you all tomorrow .
Best wishes for all Basma Diab.
Dear sir ,
As we planned here in Jordanian astronomical society , we announced for stargazing night in at a well known touristic place ( Amman castle " Roman temple " ). Some families shared us too . They were happy to observe the Moon and Saturn by telescope . and WOW ! there were Iridium satellite too .
But unfortunately , we didn't have( Regulus , Saturn ) in our pics. Our Sky wasn't dark enough at 8:00 pm ( our local time ).
However , we would like to share you these pics. one of them was selected as one of the best pics by " reuters " on 30.5. It was taken by the photographer Mohammad El Keswani ( camera : Canon EOS 1D Mark II )
It is the first pic. Some members of JAS , some friends and me appeared in the third pic. ( R to L :members of JAS :Mr Ya'cob Husseiny , Basma Diab, Samer Derbi,Ibraheem Khader ,Mrs Layla and five children . and two workers in the touristic location appeared : )
Again , many thanx for giving us this great chance to see " all these skies all over the world " .
Basma Diab (Jordanian Astronomical Society, Amman, Jordan)

Bamberg, Germany

"Lieber Herr Prof. Backhaus,
ich habe kurz die Bilder vom Projekttag gesichtet, die evtl. eine Auswertung ermöglichen, jedoch in keinem vorgesehenen Zeitraster liegen. Eines der Wolkenfotos ist in verkleinerter Version beigefügt. Eine Antwort an andere Projektteilnehmer (deren Versand wohl von meinem Mail-System nicht funktionieren dürfte) befindet sich in dieser Mail.
Viele Grüße
Klaus Völkel
Dear fellow "astronomist",
the sky was cloudy in Bamberg-Area (Germany) and no project photo were possible from 19:45 to 20:15 UT. Only at 20:32UT, 20:33UT, 20:34UT, 20:36UT it was possible to take an adequate photo. I'm looking for photo which has been taken at (or around) that times in other geographical location.
I would be happy to take a look at it.
Cincerly, yours
Klaus Voelkel"

Bayreuth, Germany

"Lieber Herr Backhaus,
tief im Osten (Bayreuth) haben wir leider wolkenverhangenen Himmel. Kein einziger Stern und leider auch der Mond ist nicht zu sehen. Wie der Wetterbericht aussagt, haben Sie bessere Witterungsverhältnisse. Ich hoffe, dass der Himmel einen Blick auf Regulus, den Saturn und den Mond zulässt. Viel Glück und Erfolg beim Mondprojekt.
R. Schünecke"

Bochum, Germany

"Hallo Herr Backhaus
trotz der frustrierenden Wolken sind mir in der Zei von 22:57 - 0:10 MESZ ca. 60 Aufnahmen gelungen, die sich auswerten lassen!
Ein tolles Projekt, jetzt gehe ich zufrieden ins Bett!
mfg
Alfred Knülle-Wenzel"

Essen, Germany

21.50 UT 22.00 UT:
Regulus almost, Saturn absolutely invisible! 22.39 UT

Perfectly clear sky - on May 31^rst!
(Moon, Saturn and constellation Leo)


21.50 UT	22.00 UT: Regulus almost, Saturn absolutely invisible!	22.39 UT

	Perfectly clear sky - on May 31^rst! (Moon, Saturn and constellation Leo)

"Dear participants,
the first pictures have been submitted to our data page. But many of us seem to have been not successful. Including myself: At 20.00 UT it was to bright and Saturn and Regulus are hardly to discover on my photos. And later, they looked through the thin clouds only sometimes - and of course not at 22.00 UT! The attached picture may give an impression.
Udo Backhaus" (Department of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany)

I could take photos at 21:50 UT and 22:39 UT. It should be possible to interpolate the moon's position to 22:00 UT (see an additional page with tips for the following project run!).
What a pitty, that we did not propose May 31^rst as an additional project day. At least in Ney (200 km from Essen) the sky was nearly prefect in that night!

Essen, Germany

"Sehr geehrter Herr Prof. Backhaus,
wie Sie konnten auch wir exakt um 22.00 UT keine Aufnahme machen. Trotzdem habe ich ein Bild von 22.05 UT zur Datenseite hochgeladen (F. Küppers/Cl. Konieczek), leider aber vergessen, die genaue Zeit anzugeben.
Wir haben auch noch weitere brauchbare Bilder von 22.10 bis 22.20 UT. Die werde ich gleich noch der community anbieten. Vielleicht hat ja jemand noch ein passendes Gegenstück dazu.
Auf jeden Fall hat uns die Teilnahme wieder viel Freude gemacht. Herzlichen Dank dafür.

Dear participants,
as reported by Prof. Backhaus, there were too many thin clouds here in Essen to make a good photo at the scheduled time. Nevertheless I have uploaded an image taken at 22.05 UT (F. Küppers/Cl. Konieczek). Please remind the incorrect time.
According to Mr. Backhaus' s proposal we tried to take photos every five minutes. So I can additionally offer photos from 22.10, 22.15 and 22.20 UT. Please contact me, if You have also taken photos at one of that times.
Kindly greetings from Essen
Jürgen Möllmanns" (Priv. Don Bosco-Gymnasium, Essen, Germany)

Istanbul, Turkey

"Hello everyone,
Istanbul was succesful; the moon was bright but there was a lot of dust in the sky so the seeing was worser then before. Today its cloudy! Attached our result at exact 20:00 GMT. (Canon EOS 350D; 8 seconds, 55mm)
Greetings
Rolf Schell" (Istanbul Lisesi)

Hanau-Großauheim, Germany

"Leider hat mir Tief Hajo die Suppe versalzen. Um 20:00 UT war es gerade aufgerissen, aber um Saturn und Regulus zu finden, war es noch zu hell; in der nächsten halben Stunde wurde zwar der Himmel dunkler, aber die Wolken immer dichter, und das blieb so bis zum Monduntergang, daher leider keine Bilder. Ich bin aber froh, dass es bei vielen doch geklappt hat.
Bis irgendwann zum nächsten Event!
Hans Joachim Wenzel" (Astronomiekurs, Lindenauschule, Hanau-Großauheim)

Höflein, Austria

"We in Höflein/Austria where very very lucky!
From the morning we had heavy rain heavy, I was very diaspoined because we made our participation in the project together with an astronomy event. But at 6 in the evening, just one hour before our event was scheduled, I coudnt belive it, the clouds opened and we could see the sky very clear. See attached Satellite picture, where I marked where you can find Höflein. If you know where Essen is you know why Mr. Backhaus had no luck .. when the clouds opened for us they closed over Essen :(
We made a great evening with a Galileo Galilei presentation, a parallaxe theory presentation, a 40 years moon landing exhibition and the photo session.
Thanks for having this opportunity to participate in the project.
Greatings from Austria,
Martin Brodicky" (Freie Astronomen Höflein, Österreich)

Kingston, Jamaica

"Dear Udo,
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes, but this is the life of the astronomer! Our previous days of trying had the same problems, but I am glad to say that our final day, May 30, 2009 came out beautifully.
The night started out with a heavy cloud cover, not even the moon was visible. However, as soon as it drew near to 8:00pm (1:00 UT) it cleared up and we had an exceptional night session. I must introduce our team who will send the pictures with notes. They are Wayne Chin who is our official photographer with 27 years of professional experience and exceptional state of the art equipment. He also has a few years experience of Astro-photography in the Astronomical Association of Jamaica (AAJ). Other members were Robert (Bobby) Rodriques our eye-piece specialist and our secretary, Jennifer Rowe.
Pictures should be submitted on the data-page shortly.
Errol Rickman" (Astronomical Association of Jamaica)

New Delhi, India

"Hello Everyone,
Here at New Delhi it was all good luck. The sky turned out to be perfectly clear last evening. I traveled about 20 kms away from the city to avoid the light pollution and get better image of Saturn and Regulus.
Captured the image nicely at the exact time of 17UT. I have uploaded the data and image. The uploaded image is a combination of two images with exposures of 1 second and 0.1 second. Camera used Canon 450D, lens used 75-300 mm zoom lens @ 75 mm, which just managed to squeeze the three objects in the FOV.
My question - will the image still be useful if there is no other entry at 17UT slot? Can the calculations be done along with the images captured at other times?
Ajay Talwar in India"

Ruhrgebiet, Germany

"Hallo Herr Backhaus,
leider ließen die örtlichen Sichtbedingungen weder um 22.00 Uhr (20.00 UT) noch alternativ um 0.00 (22.00 UT) auswertigungsfähige Fotos zu. Ich bedauere sehr, dass ich nicht erfolgreich zum Projekt beitragen konnte.
Falls am 11.10.2009 das Projekt wiederholt wird, werde ich es nochmals versuchen.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ulrich Dickmann"

Witten, Germany

"Sehr geehrter Herr Prof. Dr. Backhaus,
die von mir eingestellten Fotos entstanden um 19.53 (ca.20 Sekunden freier Himmel, um 20.00 total bedeckt) und um 22.00.00 (UT). Für 20.00 ergab die erste Berechnung mit den Werten aus Istanbul 54,99 Re. Eine zweite Berechnung mit einer Längenkorrektur von 1,75 Grad (entspricht einer Zeitdifferenz von 7Min.) ergab den Wert 57,39 Re. Verglichen mit der Angabe aus Guide 8.0 (370.799 km) beträgt die Abweichung dann etwa 5000 km (1,4%).
Als Entschuldigung für diese Ungenauigkeiten ein Foto des Landeplatzes von Apollo 11 (STATIO TRANQUILLITATIS 0.67 N, 23.49 E) in der Anlage.
Mit freundlichem Gruß
Erhard Dauter"

Udo Backhaus

last change: last update: 2020-03-03