Use this page for planning for your Moon Bounce activity, or even just to learn about how the Moon moves across the sky. (See instructions below)
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 |
| 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 |
| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 |
Local Data (top left): Year Month Day and location should default to the date on your computer. If any of those fields are not set you may need to enable the browser to access the location feature of your operating system. The time will default to 12 midday local time. You can change these fields by typing in the entry boxes, or where availabel clicking on the month in the calendar on the right. You can change the time by dragging the slider.
Separation: shows the angles between Moon-Sun, Moon-MilkywayGalaxy and Sun-MiklyWay galaxy. You can use these values for particular activities. For example, if the Sun and Moon are less than 10° apart Sun noise will dominate an echo from the Moon making it almost impossible to hear the echo. If the angle between the Moon and Milky Way is less than about 20° the background noise of the Galaxy will make it difficult to hear an echo. If the Sun and Mikly-Way galaxy are less than about 10° apart taking readings of doppler shift of the center of the galaxy or some of the spiral arms will not be as clear. The angles are color coded: red being very difficult conditions, amber difficult, no background good.
Month: on the upper right of the page shows a month at a time. You can click on the calendar to select the month and day that you are interested in. The calendar will also highlight days of the month that will be favourable for Moon Bounce activity. Amber is marginal and Green is favorable. No highlight means the Moon is not in a suitable location. The highlighting is dependent on the time of day. The slider defaults to the middle of the day, which is an indicative for daylight hours. Other times of the day may be required for better Moon Bounce conditions.
Graph: The best time for conducting Moon Bounce operation is when the Moon is closest to the Earth and as high as possible in the sky. The blue line on the graph shows the distance of the Moon from the center of the Earth. The scale on the right indicates the distances, closest at top farthest at bottom. The red line on the graph shows the elevation of the Moon in the sky in degrees for the selected location and time. The scale on the left shows the elevations, +90° at top (zenith) -90° (other side of the Earth) at bottom. Hovering the mouse over the blue or red dots will provide the information contained in a data point.
Recommended workflow: Select the year you are interested in. Look for the high points on the blue line (when the Moon is closest), these won't change much when you change the time of day and small changes in distance will not have much effect on the quality of an echo. The blue high points then give the best starting point for selecting suitable dates in a year. Having chosen one of the blue high points, drag the time slider to get the red line to peak near the blue peak. This will indicate when the Moon is at the highest point in the sky, and also closest to your location as well.
When you have match at a time that suits you then select the month on the calendar and make small adjustments to the time to get the date you are interested in. Double check that the Moon is not too close to the Sun and the Milky-Way galaxy. You may need to repeat the process for more than one month to find suitable dates.
Booking Request: Once you are happy with a date and time go to the booking request if you want to make a booking. The booking process is manual at the moment. When you click the booking request it will open your default email app and should insert the information you have entered in this webpage. Please include additional information such as who you are, your organisation if you are booking on behalf of an organisation.
Availability The radar system and operation procedures is currently being tested. Bookings for trial sessions may be available for small groups in the Eastern and South Eastern Melbourne metropolitan area only. Feel free to use the booking request button if you are interested in being part of a trial and to be put on our wait list.