Digital Image: Meteoroid Impact during Lunar Eclipse caught by Kissimmee Park Observatory

This exciting development was discovered when I was reading the article in Sky & Telescope about the impact of a piece of space debris on the Moon during the Lunar Eclipse. When I examined my raw image data I saw the unmistakable flash point of the meteoroid impact on the surface of the moon. It was exactly where and when it should be.

From the S&T article:

The flash appeared west of Mare Humorum (Sea of Moisture) southwest  of the crater Byrgius at 4:41:38 UT (11:41 p.m. EST) only seconds into totality. We don’t know how big the object was, though I’ve seen it described as possibly “the size of a football,” but it slammed into the Moon within a few kilometers of latitude 29.47° south, longitude 67.77° west.

The Canon 6D was capturing a two second exposure at this time. Very lucky!

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