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Presentation
Velocity Resolved Observations of the Extended Lunar Sodium Tail
209th American Astronomical Society Meeting, Joint Meeting with the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) (2007)
  • Michael R. Line, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • E. J. Mierkiewicz, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • F. L. Roesler, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • R. Haffner, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • R. J. Oliversen, Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA)
Abstract
We have recently obtained the first velocity resolved sodium D2 (5889.950 Å) line profile observations of the extended lunar sodium tail observed in the anti-lunar direction within 2-18 hours from new Moon. These observations were made in March, April, and September, 2006 from Pine Bluff (WI) Observatory (PBO) with a double etalon Fabry Perot spectrometer. The PBO Fabry-Perot is coupled to a siderostat with a circular 1.5 degree field-of-view on the sky, and samples a 75 km/s spectral interval with 3.5 km/s spectral resolution at 5890 Å.

The average observed radial velocity of the lunar sodium tail in the vicinity of the anti lunar point was 12 km/s from geocentric zero; the average Doppler width of a single Gaussian fit to the emission line was 8 km/s. Our current work involves mapping the spatial distribution of this emission over an 8 degree field on the sky using a grid of observations with steps of 6 minutes in right ascension (α) and 1.5 degrees in declination (δ). In this poster we will present recent data and a series of channel maps which highlight the kinematic distribution of the 5889.950 Å emission in 4 km/s velocity slices.
Keywords
  • Lunar sodium tail,
  • Moon
Publication Date
January, 2007
Location
Seattle, WA
Comments
Poster # 025.19. Also published in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, vol. 38, page 936.
Citation Information
Michael R. Line, E. J. Mierkiewicz, F. L. Roesler, R. Haffner, et al.. "Velocity Resolved Observations of the Extended Lunar Sodium Tail" 209th American Astronomical Society Meeting, Joint Meeting with the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) (2007)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/edwin_mierkiewicz/40/