Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, August 2 and 3, 2023

This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday,
August 2 and 3, written by Alan French.

The Sun rises at 5:48 A.M. on Wednesday and sets at 8:15 P.M. On
Thursday it rises at 5:49 and sets at 8:14. This Thursday has slightly
over 15 minutes less daylight than last Thursday.

The Moon was full on Tuesday and is now moving toward last quarter. A
waning gibbous Moon now rises after 9:00 P.M. On Wednesday the Moon
rises in the east southwest at 9:23 P.M. and is 97% in sunlight,
appearing almost full. It will be due south and highest at 2:32 A.M.
Thursday morning, lying 32 degrees above the horizon.

On Thursday night the Moon rises at 9:50 P.M. and its visible face will
be 92% sunlit. Saturn will be just under 11 degrees to the Moon’s upper
right, at about the 2 o’clock position at midnight when the Moon is
toward the southeast. The Moon will be due south and highest at 3:26
A.M. Friday morning. The Moon will reach last quarter next Tuesday.

Apollo 15 was the fourth manned trip to the lunar surface, with
Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irin landing near
Hadley Rille on July 30, 1971, while pilot Alfred Worden remained in
orbit on board the Command Module. This mission was the first to focus
on science, spent more time on the lunar surface, and was the first to
use the Lunar Roving Vehicle, or Lunar Rover, a vehicle designed to
carry two astronauts across the lunar surface. It allowed the crew to
venture farther from the lunar lander.

The ascent stage of the lunar module lifted off on August 2, 52 years
ago Wednesday, after spending almost 67 hours on the Moon. They brought
back 170 pounds of lunar rocks, including what is known as the Genesis
Rock, thought to be part of the early lunar crust. David Scott showed,
via the Rover’s television camera, that, in the absence of atmospheric
drag, a hammer and a feather fell at the same rate, demonstrating
Galileo’s theory.

The liftoff was the first televised by a camera on the Lunar Rover.

I don’t think many of us who lived through and followed the Apollo
program, expected we would completely abandon manned lunar exploration
for more than 50 years. (The last manned lunar landing was Apollo 17,
which left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. Eugene Cernan was the
last man to set foot on the Moon.)