APOD: Tiangong Space Station Transits the Moon (2022 Aug 25)

[APOD Robot]

Tiangong Space Station Transits the Moon

Explanation: The rugged lunar south polar region lies at the top of this colorful portrait of a last quarter Moon made on August 20. Constructed from video frames and still images taken at Springrange, New South Wales, Australia it also captures a transit of China's Tiangong Space Station. The transit itself was fleeting, taking the space station less than a second to cross the shadowed and sunlit lunar disk. The low Earth orbiting Tiangong is at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, while the Moon is some 400,000 kilometers away. Subtle color differences along the bright lunar surface are revealed in the multiple stacked frames. Not visible to the eye, they indicate real differences in chemical makeup across the lunar surface.

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[Rauf]

How to calculate when these transits happen in your location? Is there a website or a platform for that??
I am familiar with Heavens-above, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to tell me when a certain satellite like Tiangong will cross the moon or the sun.

[XgeoX]

How to calculate when these transits happen in your location? Is there a website or a platform for that??
I am familiar with Heavens-above, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to tell me when a certain satellite like Tiangong will cross the moon or the sun.

https://transit-finder.com/
Is very useful and will let you know of lunar transits.

Eric

[orin stepanek]

The brightness of the moon hides it!

Which landing spot would you pick; if given the opportunity!

[Rauf]

How to calculate when these transits happen in your location? Is there a website or a platform for that??
I am familiar with Heavens-above, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to tell me when a certain satellite like Tiangong will cross the moon or the sun.

https://transit-finder.com/
Is very useful and will let you know of lunar transits.

Eric

Lots of thanks! It is really useful indeed. I am grateful!

[De58te]

Nice going, China. Speaking of orbiting the Moon, I read on a news site a few days ago that sometime this week or next there is going to be a rocket by NASA or ESA called Artemis 1 launched to the Moon. The first rocket that can carry astronauts to the Moon since Apollo 17, although Artemis 1 will be an unmanned test flight. Anybody heard more about this?

[johnnydeep]

Nice going, China. Speaking of orbiting the Moon, I read on a news site a few days ago that sometime this week or next there is going to be a rocket by NASA or ESA called Artemis 1 launched to the Moon. The first rocket that can carry astronauts to the Moon since Apollo 17, although Artemis 1 will be an unmanned test flight. Anybody heard more about this?

Of course! It's been all over the news for the past two weeks. At least here in the U.S. Hopefully all goes well with the first actual launch test. I don't think they can afford multiple failed tests like SpaceX can (and, in practice, does!). NASA/Artemis clearly has a different engineering philosophy than SpaceX.

Lots more at https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/, and elsewhere.

[Rauf]

Nice going, China. Speaking of orbiting the Moon, I read on a news site a few days ago that sometime this week or next there is going to be a rocket by NASA or ESA called Artemis 1 launched to the Moon. The first rocket that can carry astronauts to the Moon since Apollo 17, although Artemis 1 will be an unmanned test flight. Anybody heard more about this?

Of course! It's been all over the news for the past two weeks. At least here in the U.S. Hopefully all goes well with the first actual launch test. I don't think they can afford multiple failed tests like SpaceX can (and, in practice, does!). NASA/Artemis clearly has a different engineering philosophy than SpaceX.

Lots more at https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/, and elsewhere.

Same here. However, NASA's officials have made it clear that there can be errors in the launch, because this is the first rocket of it's kind. I would be really glad if everything goes well, and I can't wait for more manned lunar exploring in the future

[beryllium732]

Why does the moon look so colorful? I thought it was plain gray?

[johnnydeep]

Why does the moon look so colorful? I thought it was plain gray?

The implication in the description is that during the photo stacking, the colors were enhanced or exaggerated for effect. But I've been unable to confirm how that was done at the linked-to picture author's Flickr page. I can't find this image there either.

[Chris Peterson]

Why does the moon look so colorful? I thought it was plain gray?

The Moon looks pretty gray to our eyes. But if we use processing techniques to enhance the actual colors (e.g. increasing the saturation) it becomes apparent that there are mineralogically very different regions on the Moon with their own subtle color differences.

Quite a few color enhanced images of the Moon have been published in recent years (including at least one APOD).